Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Marvellously entertaining this weekend leddies ed jittlemen, much work required to find the answers, though this puzzle would sometimes better be called the 'Where is it?' competition. Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers seem to me to be:

Q1. The Moorswater viaduct

Q2. Looe


(N.B. for question one, there seem to be nine listed viaducts on the stretch of railway line that the author is describing, though only one of them is a best fit for the description given, ie the Moorswater viaduct).

The initial clues place us in the town of Lostwithiel, it is around a mile south of a beautiful circa 13th century castle called 'Restormel Castle'. From looking at the photograph of it on the English heritage site, it does seem to be round and sits atop a mound surrounded by an earthworks ditch, next to the river Fowey.

The author now dons his 'crafty so and so' hat as there appear to be nine viaducts, all of them listed, on the railway line between Lostwithiel and Liskeard. From the references, specs and photographs I checked, only one is said to be 147 feet high with eight arches, though the length given differs somewhat from the puzzle description  (954 feet) as opposed to 268 yards which equates to 804 feet on the converter app. A battle fought roughly halfway between Liskeard and Lostwithiel on January 19th 1643, was the battle of Braddock down, which was a Royalists vs Parliamentarians affair, with the Royalists winning this one. Some sources claim that the battle started near a place called Boconnoc, though the battlefield is not shown on the OS map I looked at.

The person appointed MP for Liskeard in 1744 was a guy called Edward Gibbon, he wrote a book called 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' and was said to have been inspired to do so while smoking a bit of Lebanese 'tobacco' and 'seeing' some barefooted friars on Vespas at the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter in Rome on the 15th of October 1764. Gibbon was also said to have been involved with the pyramid cult.

The rural branchline at Liskeard looks like it tracks to the north east out of the town, before hair pinning around to the south west, going under the Liskeard viaduct, then turning to the north west until it reaches Coombe Junction Halt, where the train must go to align it correctly for the journey south to the coast, on the Liskeard to Looe line. The track at Coombe Junction Halt is a stone's throw from the Moorswater viaduct and from the satellite pictures, may actually go under it, though it is hard to tell because of all the trees. Once correctly aligned, the train's next or second stop is most likely St Keynes Wishing Well Halt, where a nearby church and a well are dedicated to St Keyne (c 5th century) who was according to some sources, a daughter of King Brychan of Brecon, feast day around 7th or 8th of October, depending which source you check (some of them claim Sept 30th also). The well is said to give the upper hand in a marriage to the partner who drinks from it first.

A poem called 'The Well of St Keyne' was written by Robert Southey who was appointed poet Laureate c1813:


     "A well there is in the west country,
      And a clearer one never was seen;
      There is not a wife in the west-country
      But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne."

Travelling to the end of the branch line brings us to the coastal town of Looe, which has a nature reserve of around 22 acres about a mile offshore called 'St George's' or 'Looe' island.

Link to the competition

Where Was I?