There was a total Solar Eclipse in Cornwall on 11th August 1999. The last total eclipse in Britain was over 80 years ago, so this is truly a once in a lifetime occurrence. The partial eclipse starts at about 10 a.m., goes to total darkness at 11.11 in the area shown, and returns to partial eclipse a few minutes later, before full sunlight is restored around noon.
The central line of maximum eclipse has a darkness for about two minutes, and this shades out to nothing above the northern limit line shown. Padstow for example will have around 15 seconds of total eclipse, while Newquay has around 1.5 minutes.
Here are the photographs that I took from our balcony at Corisande. The cloudy skies, one would say miraculously, cleared 30 seconds before the 2 minutes of totality were due. and we had an uninterrupted view for the whole of the total eclipse. Day did turn to night, the birds did fly in terror, people did cheer, the experience was awesome
The hotel to stay at when visiting Cornwall is Corisande Manor Hotel, Cornwall find out more about it
