{"id":710581,"date":"2026-07-25T14:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710581\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T14:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:07:09","slug":"remembering-the-total-eclipse-in-cornwall-as-phenomenon-almost-looms-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710581\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the total eclipse in Cornwall as phenomenon – almost – looms again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cornwall will be the best place in the UK to watch a near total eclipse of the sun on August 12 – 27 years almost to the exact day when the county experienced the phenomenon of a complete eclipse – on August 11, 1999.<\/p>\n

Thousands flocked across the Tamar for something nobody had ever seen in this country, and the county had not seen since 1927.<\/p>\n

This time around we will see a maximum coverage of 95% to 96% – the most anywhere in the UK – at 7:16pm, with the eclipse beginning at 6:18pm and ending at 8:10pm.<\/p>\n

But in 1999 Cornwall<\/a> was the only part of mainland Britain to witness the rare total solar eclipse \u2013 the full blacking out of the sun by the moon.<\/p>\n

Hordes arrived to view the spectacle using special glasses \u2013 who remembers the panic among many who were scared to look at the phenomenon in case they went blind?<\/p>\n

There was no need to worry, though. It was a typical summer\u2019s day in Cornwall so cloudy skies meant the full effect couldn\u2019t be seen.<\/p>\n

However, the event was still dramatic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An eclipse tea towel(Image: On This Day In Cornish History)<\/p>\n

I was on the roof of the West Briton newspaper offices on Lemon Quay, Truro<\/a> (now a Wetherspoons pub) and can still vividly remember the eeriness as the city suddenly descending into darkness and silence. The sound of the birds going crazy as the light returned was even more eerie.<\/p>\n

Renowned late TV astronomer Patrick Moore, watching in Falmouth<\/a>, described it as a “strange, weird experience”.<\/p>\n

People scrambled to viewing spots all over Cornwall to witness the unusual sight and the chances are that most people remember just where they were when it happened.<\/p>\n

Some \u2013 including TV presenter, author and Cornwall resident Fern Britton \u2013 have remembered their experiences of watching the rare occurrence in Cornwall.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI sat on the cliff at Mother Ivey\u2019s Bay. An unforgettable moment of darkness and hush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor Edward \u2018Kernow King<\/a>\u2019 Rowe: “I was working the Womad festival at the Cornwall Coliseum. On that particular day, I was an ice cream man and I came out of my ice cream hut and watched it by the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Clark: \u201cSitting on furze (ouch!) on top of St Agnes Beacon \u2013 saw the circular shadow coming along the coast like a giant alien extra-terrestrial alien spacecraft in a movie. Then darkness and twinkling of cameras all the way to Godrevy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCloudy, of course, but did see partial eclipse for a few seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornish Maid Design: \u201cWe went over the Wrestling Fields in Porthleven to watch it but it was too cloudy. I remember a seal popping its head out of the sea to catch a glimpse as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebb & Flow: \u201cIn a field in Gulval. As the eclipse began I remember that the birds stopped singing and as it grew darker all the street lights in Penzance came on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators viewing the solar eclipse<\/p>\n

Paul Farmer: \u201cCornwall was disturbingly packed. Very much like now, come to think of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gemma Finnegan: \u201cSir Patrick Moore’s taste in Hawaiian shirts. He stayed in the hotel I was working in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham Brack: \u201cThe silence as the confused birds decided it was bedtime. We stood in our garden watching the sky going dark. Then we finished our coffee and went back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Ryan: \u201cWatched the eclipse from Bodmin Moor near Temple in a classic moorland fog. My over-riding memory is the absolute quiet that descended as the A30 stopped moving and the birds fell silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deborah Clarke: \u201cBeing on Fistral and having a perfect view not only of the eclipse but of the red arrows display which followed. Simply stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Maxwell: \u201cWe were up on Droskyn in Perranporth. I remember it got darker, chillier and the birds went quiet. It was an amazing time. Lights from cameras flashing all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelley Grainger: \u201cIn Fowey, on a near-deserted farm which had been prepared for hundreds of campers. In a field with a 360 view, watching the shadow sweep over the earth. It was a bit cloudy, but still majestic. One of the fellow campers shouted ‘I believe’, causing a ripple of laughter. Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

RD Nixon: \u201cWatching from a high spot on the moors, on a day off from work, and feeling the strange hush just drop over us. The chill, although the day was already cloudy, and a weird, heavy feeling in the back of my head\/neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel K: \u201cSitting in the Argos car park in Camborne where I was working. Everything going dark and so silent. We were allowed a very generous 10 minutes for this momentous occasion!\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Winter: \u201cHungover crawled out of my tent in a field above St Ives, threw up, thick clouds, went dark, birds freaked out and some t*** killed the atmosphere by cranking up End Of The World As We Know It by REM. Largely disappointed!\u201d<\/p>\n

Viewing wasn’t just confined to the land \u2013 thousands of boats gathered around the coast to watch the amazing phenomenon and helicopters and light aircraft crammed into airspace.<\/p>\n

To cope with all eventualities the event could lead to, emergency services, regular and auxiliary coastguards were on duty, and 37 regular and inshore lifeboats operated around the coast.<\/p>\n

Summer leave for personnel at the Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose was postponed to provide ten Royal Navy helicopters for emergency use if required.<\/p>\n

This article was first published in 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cornwall will be the best place in the UK to watch a near total eclipse of the sun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,1293,2802,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-710581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-history","tag-nostalgia","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}