Other in Cornwall

Fistral Beach in Newquay is the most celebrated surf beach in Britain and one of the most recognised surfing venues in Europe, a northwest-facing bay that receives consistent Atlantic swell producing reliable waves that have made Newquay the capital of British surfing since the sport was introduced to Cornwall in the 1960s. The beach is the venue for the annual Boardmasters festival, one of the largest surf and music events in Europe, and the headquarters of Surfing England is based in Newquay, underlining Fistral's central position in British surf culture. The beach faces northwest into the Atlantic and receives long-period swell from the open ocean that produces well-shaped, consistently breaking waves across a range of swell sizes. The profile of the beach and the offshore seabed topography combine to create conditions that work in a variety of wind and swell scenarios, making Fistral more reliable than many Cornish beaches that depend on specific combinations of conditions to produce surfable waves. The beach is supervised by lifeguards throughout the summer and the surf schools operating from the beachside facilities make it the preferred destination for beginners taking their first lessons. The setting of Fistral on the headland between the main Newquay town beaches and the open sea gives it a more exposed and dramatic character than the more sheltered bays nearby. The Headland Hotel at the northern end of the beach is one of the most recognisable buildings on the Cornish coast, its Victorian grandeur adding an unexpected architectural note to the surf beach setting. The town of Newquay has developed primarily around surf and youth tourism and the infrastructure of surf shops, beach bars, hostels and restaurants along the approaches to Fistral reflects that culture, providing the social context in which the surfing experience is embedded.

Land's End is the most southwesterly point of mainland Britain, the tip of the Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall where the granite cliffs plunge into the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the long finger of land that makes Cornwall. Its significance as the furthest point from John O'Groats in Scotland has made it a destination for end-to-end walkers, cyclists and travellers of every description, and the combination of the dramatic granite cliff scenery, the views to the Isles of Scilly and the symbolic weight of standing at the edge of the mainland make Land's End a place of genuine emotional resonance for many visitors. The granite cliffs at Land's End are among the most impressive on the Cornish coast, the massive jointed blocks of the Penwith granite eroded by Atlantic waves into a chaotic landscape of pinnacles, sea stacks and deep cliff-edge gullies. The Armed Knight and the Longships Lighthouse visible offshore provide focal points for the view seaward, and on exceptionally clear days the Scilly Isles forty-five kilometres to the southwest are visible on the horizon. The light at Land's End has a quality particular to the far west of Cornwall, the combination of sea air, granite rock and the wide sky producing a clarity and luminosity that explains the tradition of artists working in this area. The visitor facilities at Land's End are managed commercially and include various paid attractions alongside the access to the clifftop viewpoints, which are free. The signpost measuring distances to various destinations worldwide has become one of the most photographed features, providing a focus for the end-to-end travellers who complete their journey here. The South West Coast Path connects Land's End to both the north and south Cornish coasts and provides excellent walking in both directions from the headland.

Lizard Point on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall is the most southerly point of mainland Britain, the tip of a headland composed of the distinctive serpentinite rock that gives the peninsula its characteristic rich green and red colouring and creates a coastline of extraordinary beauty and geological interest. The combination of the symbolic significance of the southernmost mainland point, the dramatic cliff scenery and the unusual geology makes Lizard Point one of the most visited headlands in Cornwall. The serpentinite rock of the Lizard is part of an ancient piece of ocean floor that was thrust onto the continental margin during a collision of tectonic plates approximately 370 million years ago, creating a fragment of the Earth's mantle that is exposed at the surface across the entire Lizard Peninsula. The distinctive green, red and yellow colours of the serpentine rock are the result of the mineralogy of this mantle material, and the local tradition of working serpentine into ornaments, paperweights and decorative objects has been a cottage industry on the Lizard since the Victorian period. Several workshops in the Lizard village sell handmade serpentine objects alongside the more conventional tourist goods. The cliff scenery around Lizard Point is excellent walking country, the South West Coast Path traversing the headland and connecting it with Kynance Cove to the northwest, one of the most beautiful small beaches in Cornwall whose crystalline water and serpentine rock stacks create a scene of extraordinary colour and clarity. The lighthouse at Lizard Point, whose light has guided vessels through the approaches to the English Channel for centuries, adds a practical and historical dimension to the dramatic natural setting. The surrounding Lizard Peninsula with its rare flora, including the Cornish heath found only here in Britain, and its exceptional coastal habitats provides one of the most ecologically interesting as well as scenically rewarding sections of the Cornwall coast.

The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of approximately 140 islands and rock outcrops lying 45 kilometres southwest of Land's End, the remotest settled part of England and one of the most unusual and beautiful places in the British Isles. Only five islands are inhabited: St Mary's, Tresco, St Martin's, Bryher and St Agnes, with a total permanent population of around 2,200 people, and the islands' extraordinary combination of climate, scenery, wildlife and historical depth rewards even a brief visit with experiences unavailable anywhere else in Britain. The climate is the first and most fundamental thing that distinguishes the Scilly from the rest of Britain. The influence of the Gulf Stream raises average temperatures substantially above comparable mainland latitudes, essentially preventing frost and allowing plants to flourish that would be killed by winter cold anywhere else in the country. The most dramatic expression of this is the flower-growing industry that sustained the islands' economy for most of the twentieth century: narcissi, scillas and exotic agapanthus that bloom outdoors in January and February while the rest of Britain shivers. The famous gardens of Tresco Abbey, created within the ruins of a Benedictine priory, contain plants from over 80 countries growing in open ground, an achievement possible only because of this unique microclimate. The islands' long human history stretches back to the Neolithic period. More than 50 Bronze Age entrance graves, distinctive tomb monuments built from large stones, are scattered across the islands, representing one of the highest concentrations of prehistoric funerary monuments per unit area in Britain. The islands were apparently an important burial destination for communities from a much wider area, possibly reflecting a belief in the islands as a threshold between the living world and the world of the dead. The remarkable quantity of Roman artefacts found on the islands, mostly votive offerings deposited in late Roman times, similarly suggests that the Scillies held particular religious significance in the Roman period. The wildlife of the islands and their surrounding waters is exceptional. Atlantic puffins nest on the uninhabited islands throughout the summer, and the seabird colonies on the stacks and rocky islets include storm petrels, Manx shearwaters and shags. Grey seals breed on the remote western rocks, and the clear waters around the islands support populations of sunfish, basking sharks and occasionally leatherback turtles. The inter-island boat trips that operate throughout the summer season provide the best access to much of this wildlife. Reaching the Scilly requires either the helicopter service from Penzance or Land's End Airport, or the Scillonian III ferry from Penzance, a journey of approximately two and three quarter hours that can be lively in any kind of Atlantic swell.

St Ives is one of the most beautiful and most visited small towns in Britain, a former fishing port on the north coast of the Penwith Peninsula in west Cornwall whose combination of a working harbour, excellent sandy beaches, a long tradition of attracting artists and the Tate St Ives gallery of modern and contemporary art makes it one of the most culturally rich small destinations in England. The town faces north into St Ives Bay with the harbour in the centre and the beaches of Porthminster, Porthmeor and Carbis Bay on either side, each with their own character and the characteristic turquoise water of the Penwith coast. The harbour is the heart of St Ives, its stone quays enclosing a basin where fishing vessels, pleasure craft and the ferry to the Seal Island still operate alongside the tourist activity that has transformed the town since the nineteenth century. The quality of light in St Ives, a combination of the maritime air, the reflection from the surrounding sea and the clarity of the Cornish atmosphere, was identified by artists from Whistler and Sargent onward as being of particular quality for painting, and the artistic colony that developed from the 1880s onward eventually produced one of the most significant concentrations of modern British art outside London. The Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden in her former studio on the Barnoon hill above the harbour, managed by the Tate, provides the most direct engagement with the most important artist of the St Ives school, her sculptures displayed in the garden and studios where she worked until her death in 1975. The Tate St Ives gallery on the Porthmeor beachfront, designed by Eldred Evans and David Shalev and opened in 1993, presents changing exhibitions of modern and contemporary art in a building of considerable architectural quality whose location above the beach gives it exceptional natural light. The town's maze of narrow streets and courts, the independent shops and the quality of its seafood restaurants make St Ives a destination that rewards time beyond the galleries and beaches.

Trelissick Garden is a National Trust estate of exceptional beauty occupying a prominent headland above the Fal Estuary near Truro in Cornwall, its gardens and woodland combining to create one of the finest garden landscapes on the Cornish coast. The mild, almost frost-free climate of the Fal Estuary creates conditions that allow an extraordinary range of subtropical and tender plants to thrive in the open garden, and the combination of these exotic plantings with the maritime setting and the views across the estuary water makes Trelissick genuinely unlike any other garden in Britain. The garden occupies a plateau above the estuary and wraps around the Edwardian house at its centre, descending in a series of terraced compartments and woodland clearings toward the water's edge. The plant collections reflect the Cornish garden tradition of collecting and displaying tender species from warm-temperate regions of the world that cannot be grown outdoors elsewhere in Britain. Clianthus from New Zealand, banksias from Australia, Echium from the Canary Islands and ancient magnolias from China and the Himalaya all contribute to a planting palette of exceptional diversity. The formal areas near the house include a particularly fine fig garden, the ornamental vegetable garden and borders designed for year-round interest using tender perennials that are moved under cover for winter. The woodland below contains a remarkable collection of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas that provide a spectacular display from January through May, when successive waves of colour move through the woodland as different species reach their peak. A network of circular walking routes extends through the garden's woodland and down to the estuary shore, where views across the water to the King Harry Ferry and the wooded far bank of the Fal provide one of the most peaceful and beautiful maritime landscapes in Cornwall. The King Harry Ferry, just downstream from the garden, provides a charming connection to the Roseland Peninsula and a route that avoids the long inland detour otherwise necessary to reach the eastern side of the estuary.

St Senara's Church in the village of Zennor on the north coast of west Cornwall is one of the most atmospheric and historically interesting small parish churches in a county famous for ancient places of worship. The church dates from at least the twelfth century and the oldest fabric of the existing building reflects the Norman period of construction, though the dedication to St Senara, an obscure Breton saint connected to early Celtic Christianity, suggests that the site may have had religious significance considerably before the Norman Conquest. The church is most famous for a carved wooden bench end of considerable age, the Mermaid Chair, which depicts a mermaid holding a comb in one hand and a mirror in the other. The carving is the physical anchor for the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, one of the best-known of Cornish folk tales. According to the story, a beautiful and mysterious woman attended services at St Senara's church over many years, enchanting the congregation with her appearance and particularly the young chorister Matthew Trewhella, who one evening followed her voice down to the sea at Pendour Cove and was never seen again. Fishermen subsequently reported hearing the couple singing together beneath the waves, and the mermaid warned boats away from the cove where she and Matthew had established their underwater home. The age of the carving is debated but is generally placed in the medieval period, making it one of the oldest surviving examples of this type of figurative church woodwork in Cornwall. The bench end remains in situ in the church and can be examined at close quarters, the mermaid's features and the symbolic objects she carries clearly visible despite the centuries of wear on the wood. The church's setting within the small cluster of granite buildings that comprises Zennor village, with the moors rising behind and the Atlantic coast visible from the church tower, is entirely characteristic of west Cornwall at its most elemental. The village and the surrounding landscape appear in the published writing of D.H. Lawrence, who lived in Zennor during the First World War and wrote vividly about the community and its character.

Zennor Cliff forms part of one of the most dramatic and wild stretches of the South West Coast Path along the north coast of Cornwall between St Ives and Zennor village, a section of coastline where the ancient granite of the Penwith Peninsula meets the full force of the Atlantic Ocean in a landscape of extraordinary geological drama and natural beauty. The cliffs here are among the most rugged and exposed on the entire Cornish coast, their faces plunging directly to the sea without the benefit of sandy beaches or sheltered coves to soften the transition between land and water. The coastal geology at Zennor is as ancient as any in England. The granite that forms the cliff faces was intruded into older metamorphic rocks during the Carboniferous period approximately 275 million years ago, and subsequent weathering and erosion by the sea have exposed the massive jointed structure of the granite in cross-section. The characteristic blockiness of the cliff faces, with their rectangular fracture patterns and occasional spectacular rock stacks, reflects the jointing geometry of the granite rather than the horizontally layered structure typical of sedimentary coastal cliffs. The walking along the coast path between St Ives and Zennor is among the finest in Cornwall, a section of approximately seven kilometres that passes through a landscape almost entirely uninhabited and largely unchanged from its appearance centuries ago. The Atlantic views to the north are open and vast, the cliffs rising and falling as the path follows the contours of the headlands, and the combination of maritime grassland, heather and bracken on the clifftops with the dark rock faces and blue-green sea below creates a colour palette of extraordinary richness in good weather. Seabirds nest on the cliff faces throughout the spring and summer breeding season, and grey seals are regularly seen in the water below the cliffs or hauled out on accessible rock platforms. Choughs, whose red bills and feet and acrobatic flight distinguish them from other corvids, are sometimes seen along this section of the Penwith coast.

The Zennor section of the South West Coast Path follows one of the most celebrated and dramatic stretches of the entire 630-mile National Trail, hugging the granite clifftops of the north Penwith coast between St Ives and Zennor village through a landscape of extraordinary natural and archaeological richness. The path traces ancient coastal routes that were used by local communities long before the formal designation of the National Trail, connecting the fishing and farming villages of west Cornwall along routes that offered both the shortest coastal journey and the advantage of high ground from which approaching vessels and weather could be observed. The character of the walking is strenuous and rewarding in equal measure. The granite cliffs of Penwith do not provide an easy coastal walk: the path rises and falls repeatedly across headlands and down into the small coves and stream valleys that indent the coastline, and the accumulated ascent and descent over even a relatively short section is considerable. The effort is repaid at every turn by views of extraordinary quality: the Atlantic stretching to the horizon to the north, the cliff faces dropping dramatically to the sea below, and the granite moorland rising behind the coastal strip in a landscape that feels genuinely wild. The section between St Ives and Zennor, approximately seven kilometres, is regarded as one of the finest coastal walks in England, passing through a sequence of headlands and coves each with its own character and wildlife. Seal sightings in the water below the cliffs are relatively common, particularly in the quieter coves, and the seabird colonies that occupy the cliff faces during the breeding season add movement and sound to the visual drama of the route. The path connects at Zennor with the village, the ancient church and the moorland walking routes inland, allowing circular walks that combine the coastal path with cross-country routes through the prehistoric landscape of the Penwith interior. The logistics of a one-way walk between St Ives and Zennor are straightforward, with the infrequent bus service connecting the two points for the return journey.

Zennor Head is a dramatic granite headland on the north Penwith coast of Cornwall immediately below the village of Zennor, a promontory of ancient metamorphic and igneous rock projecting into the Atlantic Ocean at the point where the moorland of the Penwith plateau meets the sea in a succession of cliff faces and rock platforms of considerable geological and scenic interest. The headland forms part of the South West Coast Path and provides some of the finest walking available on the north Penwith coast, with the full extent of the north Cornwall coast visible in both directions on clear days. The geology of Zennor Head reflects the ancient origins of the Penwith peninsula, whose basement rocks of schist and greenstone are among the oldest exposed at the surface anywhere in Cornwall, their complex folding and metamorphism recording events that took place deep within the Earth's crust hundreds of millions of years ago. The granite that forms much of the headland was intruded into these older rocks approximately 275 million years ago and its durability has made it the dominant rock of the modern coastline, its massive jointing patterns creating the cliff faces and rock platforms visible at Zennor and throughout the Penwith coast. The coastal walking from Zennor Head south toward Pendeen and north toward St Ives traverses some of the finest and most exposed cliff scenery on the north Cornish coast, the cliffs here rising to considerable height and the views across the Atlantic extending to the horizon in a way that emphasises the peninsula's position at the very edge of mainland Britain. The chough, a rare crow of the Celtic coastline, can be seen on the headland in small numbers and the Atlantic grey seal hauls out on the rock platforms at sea level below the cliffs.

Zennor Quoit is one of the finest and most dramatically positioned Neolithic portal dolmens in Cornwall, a prehistoric burial chamber of massive stone construction standing on the granite moorland above the village of Zennor on the rugged Atlantic coast of west Cornwall. The monument dates to approximately 2500 BC, placing its construction in the late Neolithic period when the farming communities of western Cornwall were building elaborate collective tombs to house the remains of their dead and to provide focal points for ritual and ceremonial activity in the landscape. The dolmen consists of a large rectangular chamber formed by four substantial upright stones supporting an enormous capstone that once formed the roof of the burial space. The capstone is one of the largest in Cornwall, measuring approximately 4 metres across, and its weight and the precision required to position it over the upright stones speaks clearly to the organisational capacity and collective effort of the community that built it. Originally the entire structure would have been covered by a long cairn of earth and stone, creating a burial mound visible across the surrounding moorland, but the covering mound has long since eroded away, leaving the stone skeleton exposed on the open hillside. The setting of Zennor Quoit adds enormously to the power of the monument. The open granite moorland of the Penwith peninsula stretches in every direction, the Atlantic Ocean visible to the north and west, the distant hills of west Cornwall rising to the south and east. This landscape has changed relatively little since the Neolithic period, and the sense of the ancient community that chose this elevated position for their burial monument and the effort they invested in its construction is particularly vivid here because the surrounding landscape provides so little visual noise from the modern world. The monument is freely accessible at all times from the public footpath network across the Penwith moors, and the walk from Zennor village to the quoit and back through the moorland landscape makes a rewarding half-day excursion combining prehistoric heritage with some of the finest open moorland scenery in Cornwall.

Zennor is a small and ancient village on the north coast of the Penwith Peninsula in west Cornwall, a scattered settlement of granite farmhouses and cottages in the characteristic Cornish moorland landscape between the high ground of Penwith Moor and the dramatic coastal cliffs that drop to the Atlantic below. The village is known for the mermaid legend associated with its medieval church, the remarkable quality of its prehistoric landscape and its brief but intense association with D H Lawrence during the First World War. The Church of St Senara in the village contains the famous Mermaid Chair, a bench end carved with the figure of a mermaid holding a comb and mirror, the best-known example of a widespread coastal church carving tradition. The legend attached to the carving tells of a beautiful woman who attended services at Zennor and lured a chorister named Mathey Trewella with her singing to follow her into the sea at Pendour Cove below the village, where both were turned into mermaids and can sometimes be heard singing beneath the waves. The chair is estimated to date from the fifteenth century. D H Lawrence and his German wife Frieda lived at Zennor from 1916 to 1917, attracted by the remoteness of the Penwith landscape and seeking relief from the pressures of wartime England. Lawrence wrote parts of Women in Love at Zennor and his time in the village, ended by expulsion under the Defence of the Realm Act following suspicion of signalling to German submarines, is recorded in his memoir Kangaroo and in various letters that describe his intense and contradictory relationship with the Cornish landscape. The prehistoric landscape around Zennor includes the chambered tomb of Zennor Quoit, one of the finest megalithic monuments in Cornwall, visible on the moorland above the village.