34. Leg 9  - SW Coastal Path 34: Porthlevan to The Lizard

20 October 2019

 We could have taken a bus to Helston and another to Porthlevan but the Lizard Taxi service seemed a better bet and over an hour quicker! The flashy scenic photos were taken by Tom! It was one of those walks when we could see our final destination long before we actually reached it!

1. The route

2. A house in Lizard while we were waiting for the taxi!

3. Porthleven

4. Penrose

5. View back to Porthleven

10. Exotic flowers!

11. The Loe: the largest body of fresh water in Cornwall at the estuary of the River Cober is separated from the salty sea by the mixture of fine gravel and sand called the Loe Bar. Possibly created by storms, the Bar had formed by the 13th century and consequently cut Helston off from the sea. It is thought that Alfred Lord Tennyson was describing the Loe as the place where Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the water: "On one side lay the ocean, and on one lay a great water" (Idylls of the King, The Passing of Arthur).

12. The increasingly familiar sign of coastal erosion.

13. Porthleven Sands

14. Halzephron Cove: Halzephron is Cornish for ‘Cliff of Hell’ and on a windy day you can see why. Ships have been wrecked along this stretch of storm-battered coast and local myth warns of a freak wave which claims a life every seven years from Porthleven Sands.

15. Pedngwinian Gunwalloe

16. Jangye Ryn Gunwalloe

17. Church Cove - Gunwalloe Church of St. Winwaloe in its extraordinary setting at the foot of the dunes of Church Cove.

By the porch is a figure of St. Winwaloe, there is a Norman bell tower and a Celtic cross in the churchyard.

18. Poldhu Cove, Poldhu Point and the remains of Marconi’s wireless station: on 12 December 1901 Italian Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first transatlantic radio signals from Poldhu Head to Newfoundland.

19. Meres Cliff

20. Mullion to Mullion Island

21. Love Rock, Mullion

22. Polurrian

23. Mullion Cliff, Mullion Cove and Mullion Harbour

24. The sea from Predannack Head and Predannack.

25. Gew Gaze from Vellan Head and Gew Gaze

26. Pigeon Ogo

27. Looking back to Vellan Head

28 Kynance Cliff looking to Lizard Point. The rocky stacks and arches of the exceptionally beautiful Kynance Cove: the largest outcrop of serpentine rock in Britain. Owned by The National Trust, the cove is tucked out of view by the towering cliffs either side, so it is quite a dramatic view as you approach. The cove became a popular destination in early Victorian times, which is when the stacks of Asparagus Island, Gull Rock and Steeple Rock received their names. Alfred Lord Tennyson is said to have visited this part of the Lizard on a number of occasions, and the beauty of the cove was also experienced by the playwright George Bernard Shaw, Charles Kingsley and a rather seasick Prince Albert!

29. Pentreath Beach

30. Looking back to Lion Rock

31. Caerthillian Cove

32. Crane Ledges, Lizard

33. Venton Hill Point, Lizard

34. View to Lizard Point.

35. Pistil Meadow

36. Lizard Point, the most southerly point in Britain. This is a particularly hazardous stretch of coast and there has been a Trinity House Lighthouse here since 1751. Apparently, there was a certain amount of resistance to the building of a lighthouse as it was seen to damage the wrecking industry! See the remains of the old Lifeboat Station.