Lizard to Coverack

Friday 23rd April 2010

Approximately 11.5 miles including 10.5 miles on South West Coast Path

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

We woke to another sunny morning, and breakfast at the Caerthillian (fruit salad, yoghurt and scrambled egg and mushroom) was deliciously cooked by Austin Pratt. They are clearly making a real go of this B&B (having moved here two years ago) - they deserve to succeed. We left around 9am and bought stamps and a copy of 'Beneath the skin of the Lizard' (about the geology of the Lizard) from the Post Office opposite the B&B, but we were too early to buy provisions for lunch. We followed the same path as we'd used yesterday evening back to the coast, and with the benefit of having read the wildflower equivalent of 'Beneath the skin of the Lizard' over breakfast, we now knew that the wild flowers so much in evidence were 'three cornered leek' (also known as wild garlic). An overheard conversation, a twitcher with a powerful lens and a look-out station as we reached the Coast Path made us realise that there were choughs nearby too. The view down to the Old Lifeboat Station from the 'Most Southerly Cafe' was spectacular, and very familiar from Wycliffe.

The path took us to the seaward side of the Lizard Lighthouse and we took a short diversion to 'Lion's Den' (a collapsed cave) and an interesting pillar of rock known as 'Bramble Rock'. We descended towards Housel Bay, crossed a stream by a mass of primroses, then climbed back up towards the Housel Bay Hotel. We passed the Lizard Wireless Station (a wooden hut whose claim to fame seems to be the fact that it received a signal from the Marconi Station on the Isle of Wight in 1901), the Lloyds Signal Station and the National Coastwatch Station, and shortly afterwards we rounded Bass Point.

The modern lifeboat station is at Kilcobben Cove - the lifeboat station itself is down well below the path, but there are two buildings alongside the path on the clifftop. Shortly afterwards we reached the picturesque Church Cove and, given that today's leg of the path was relatively short, we decided to take another short diversion, this time up to St Wynwallow's Church. This was definitely worth doing. The church tower is built from alterating blocks of serpentine and granite, giving a chequered effect and the churchyard was full of primroses; inside the Church there's a pulpit made of serpentine and lots of memorials to members of the Vyvyan Family. However the walk up to the church was even better - there's an abundance of thatched cottages and the little valley has its own microclimate, with flowers at a later stage than elsewhere (for example, the cherry trees were in full flower). It was difficult to believe that we were so close to the rather bleak Lizard Town and yesterday's moorland scenery - and even closer to the rugged coastal scenery.

We returned to Church Cove and climbed up through the remains of a serpentine quarry, then continued with various descents and ascents to the funnel-shaped depression and natural arch of Hugga Driggee (the Devil's Frying Pan) and so down to the picture-postcard village of Cadgwith. We bought (expensive!) crab sandwiches and sat on the little peninsula between what's called the beach, and the beach with the fishing boats, watching fishermen landing their catch. It was delightful; I could have stayed here all day. Unfortunately I discovered a blister between the toes on my right foot. I'm not quite sure how it got there, but it didn't cause any real problems.

We continued on to the disused serpentine works and the pretty beach at Poltesco. We walked along the edge of the golf course at Thorny Cliff, with static caravans to our left, then descended to the 'geologically unique' Kennack Sands, with two beaches, exposures of gneiss, gabbro, granite and baslt - and delicious Roskilly's ice cream! We walked across the first beach, up and over the dividing mound, then around the second beach - and back up to the cliff top.

From here to Black Head the walking was mostly on a rough but fairly level path through gorse etc., with a couple of steep descents and ascents, most spectacularly at Downas Cove. We turned the corner at Black Head (shown) and thought we were nearly there, we'd reckoned withut the steep descent of Chynhalls Cliff, with much scrambling over boulders etc. We crossed the back of Chynhalls Point, and Dolar Point came into view. Coverack is built on Dolar Point, and the walking was easy from here.

We joined the main road in Coverack and walked through the village, then climbed up to Fernleigh, above the Church. Anne Rogers saw us coming and showed us to our room, with delightful views to the harbour and the beach. In the evening we had 'cooked to order' fish and chips from the former (but not very old) Lifeboat Station - it was the home of a lifeboat until 1972. We sat and ate the fish and chips on the harbour wall then walked around the village, realising that whilst there was a good choice of places to get a sit-down meal, buying provisions for lunch tomorrow might be more of a challenge.

Following day