River Fal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flushing, from Fish Strand Quay, Falmouth, with rainbow.

The River Fal flows through Cornwall, United Kingdom, rising on the Goss Moor (between St. Columb and St. Austell) and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth. On or near the banks of the Fal are the castles of Pendennis and St Mawes as well as Trelissick Garden. The River Fal separates the Roseland peninsula from the rest of Cornwall. Like most of its kind on the south coast of Cornwall and Devon, the Fal estuary is a classical ria, or drowned river valley.

[edit] Crossings

The river is crossed by the historic and scenic King Harry Ferry, a vehicular chain ferry that links the villages of Feock and Philleigh approximately equidistant between Truro and Falmouth.

[edit] Placename

The name Fal is Old Norse/Danish Viking, and dates from the Viking Age, a time when the Danes allied with the Britons of Cornwall, and caused devastation to Cornwall's Anglo-Saxon enemy in Wessex.^{[citation needed]}