Coverack Lizard Peninsula
Coverack is a small and remarkably well-preserved fishing village on the east coast of the Lizard Peninsula in south Cornwall, a community of stone cottages around a small harbour whose combination of the working boats, the café and pub above the sea wall and the character of a genuine fishing community that has not been entirely transformed by tourism makes it one of the most authentic small coastal communities on the Lizard. The distinctive geological character of the Lizard Peninsula, with its serpentinite and gabbro rock, gives Coverack's harbour walls and local buildings a green and brown colour quite unlike the granite of the west Cornish coast.
The fishing heritage of Coverack is represented by the working boats that continue to fish the offshore waters for crab, lobster and various fish species, and the café and pub in the village provide fresh local seafood in a setting of considerable coastal charm. The village escaped the major tourist development that transformed some other Cornish coastal villages in the twentieth century, and the result is a settlement of genuine character where the fishing community's presence is still felt.
The coastal path from Coverack provides excellent walking in both directions along the Lizard's east coast, the serpentinite rock creating distinctive cliff and foreshore scenery with unusual mineral colouring and the characteristic flora of the Lizard's serpentinite grasslands visible on the cliff tops. The National Nature Reserve of the Lizard's heathland is accessible from the coastal path circuit.