Penzance Chronicles: Echoes of History and Heritage

Explore Penzance at your own pace

A white Art Deco triangle juts boldly into the blue Cornish sea-Jubilee Pool stands as proof that Penzance never shies from spectacle or survival. Slip on your headphones for a self-guided audio tour through Wherrytown and the heart of Penzance, discovering secret battles, bizarre scandals, and wild stories hidden just beneath the surface.

Why did furious townsfolk fight tooth and nail to keep Jubilee Pool afloat when storms threatened to wash it away? What vanished secrets sleep in the ghostly forest beneath Battery Rocks? Could a single chime from St Mary's bells really stop disaster in its tracks?

Wind along windswept promenades and granite churchyards where cannon fire and community spirit have shaped every stone. Each stop transforms everyday scenery into a vivid stage of rebellion, invention, and laughter.

Photo: BEN ELLIOTT, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 4.0 km (2.5 miles)
• Stops: 11 landmarks, including Jubilee Pool, Battery Rocks, St Mary's Church, Penzance
• Audio: up to 28 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Jubilee Pool

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• Jubilee Pool
• Battery Rocks
• St Mary's Church, Penzance
• Market Building, Penzance
• Morrab Library
• Penzance A.F.C.
• Penlee House
• St John's Hall, Penzance
• West Cornwall Hospital
• St John's Church, Penzance
• Lescudjack Hill Fort

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Pepijn M, BEN ELLIOTT, Iain Macrae (Unsplash).