The Egyptian House
The Egyptian House dates from about 1835 and the style became popular after Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1798. It is a very Victorian English interpretation of Egypt which includes the Royal Coat of Arms and an eagle. It was originally a museum and geological shop and was described in an 1845 guide to Penzance as "the astonishing gaudy and eccentric Egyptian House recently built by John Lavin, mineralogist and Egyptologist". By the 1960s it had become neglected and painted over but was then painstakingly restored and repainted in something as close as possible to the original scheme. The building is now owned by the Landmark Trust and the upper floors are let as a holiday cottage.
On walks
- Penzance to Newlyn (3.9 mile walk)
Get the iWalkCornwall app
Download the app and use it to explore the walks and to purchase a guided route.
The app will direct you to the start of the walk via satnav.
The app guides you around the walk using GPS, removing any worries about getting lost.
The walk route is described with detailed, regularly-updated, hand-written directions.
Each time there is a new direction to follow, the app will beep to remind you, and will warn you if you go off-route.
A map shows the route, where you are at all times and even which way you are facing.
Each walk is packed with information about the history and nature along the route, from over a decade of research than spans more than 3,000 topics.
Once a walk is downloaded, the app doesn't need a phone or wifi signal during the walk.
The app counts down distance to the next direction and estimates time remaining based on your personal walking speed.
We keep the directions continually updated for changes to the paths/landmarks - the price for a walk includes ongoing free updates.
