Porthleven to Lizard
Thursday 22nd April 2010
Approximately 15 miles including 14 miles on South West Coast Path
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
We woke to another sunny morning and had our breakfast in the sun room at front of the Seefar Guest House, with excellent views down to the harbour - and of the vans belonging to the builders working on a house down the road! We chatted to Janice and to Dave, the other guest, who knows the South West Coast Path well. We left Seefar soon after 9am and walked down to the harbour area, for photography at high tide and to buy lunch (small cheese and onion pasties).
We walked back alongside the harbour to the clocktower building and then along Cliff Road, Loe Bar Road and Mount's Road to a car park at the end. We climbed up steps here to a broad path that descends to the beach at Loe Bar, which separates the Loe from the sea. 'Loe' is the Cornish word for 'pool' and the Loe is the largest natural body of freshwater in Cornwall, though it was originally a coastal inlet. Loe Bar had vegetation much like that found on sand dunes, with a succession of maram grass, sea holly etc. Beyond Loe Bar we passed a memorial to the people who drowned when HMS Anson was beached in a storm in 1807. The local people were powerless to help, and this apparently inspired Henry Trengrouse to invent the breeches buoy system (a rocket with a line attached), though I'm aware that Captain George Manby (perhaps the most famous son of the village of Denver in Norfolk, where we live, and inventor of 'Manby's Mortar') and John Dennett (from the Isle of Wight) also had some claim to fame in this area - and there may be more!
We followed the cliff above the beach to Gunwalloe Fishing Cove, then round a section of crumbling cliff to Halzephron Cliff and along Halzephron Cliff to Gunwalloe Towans and Church Cove. Both Janice and Dave this morning had warned us to take care not to miss St Winwaloe's Church, which nestles at the edge of the cove with a separate belfry built into the hillside. The Church has parts from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and the granite pillars inside lean at an interesting angle. Outside, we particularly liked the very thin gravestones (thin because they are made of slate-type rock) and the statue commemorating the 'fairground fun' events which are held on the beach each year to raise funds for pews in the Church.
We ignored the rather complicated official route and crossed the top of the beach then climbed up the other side of the cliff, with the golf club to our left. We descended again to Poldhu Cove with a rather unattractive building (a former Victorian Hotel, now a care home) dominating the headland in front of us. We crossed the stream at the top of the beach by way of a road bridge, complete with a black post box half-way across. We walked up the drive to the care home and passed to the seaward side of it to a lichen-covered memorial to Marconi's first radio message (repeated 'S's in Morse Code), sent from here to Newfoundland in 1901. We stopped for lunch within sight of Mullion Island (volcanic, pillow lava perhaps?, and the most important nesting site for birds on the Lizard) and Polurrian Cove, with a large hotel above it. Then we descended to the cove, ascended nearly to the hotel and walked the short distance to another large hotel, the Mullion Cove Hotel.
We descended to the Victorian harbour at Mullion Cove and stopped there to buy postcards and a cup of tea and to watch four British workmen (one working, three watching) repairing the harbour wall.
After passing so many notable sights between Porthleven and Mullion Cove, the walk from here to Lizard Point was remarkably simple. We climbed up from Mullion Cove (with views all the way back to St Michael's Mount appearing behind us) onto moorland, much of it nature reserves, bounded by spectacular cliffs. The moorland overlies the classic Lizard serpentine. It was windy up on the moorland, but very pleasant walking. However it was quite difficult to monitor our progress and when we came to a descent into a lush valley (with attractive vegetation and grazing cattle) we assumed we were at Gew-graze. Unfortunately we were still a couple of miles short, probably above Ogo-dour Cove, and getting our location wrong was a bit disorientating.
Once we got to the real Gew-graze our location became clear again and we particularly enjoyed the views from Kynance Cliff to Kynance Cove with Lizard Point and Lighthouse clearly visible in front of us.The steep descent to Kynance Cove was less fun, especially since my legs were getting tired, and we then got a little confused as the the correct route out of the Cove. We followed a rather boring track up to the car park at the top - I'm still not sure if this was the best route, especially since there appeared to be a more direct route to the car park. The signposting here was particularly poor - it wasn't brilliant at all today.
Things got better from this point. We continued along the cliff to Lizard Point, with a few descents and ascents, especially at Caerthillian Cove. Lizard Point itself, totally unpoilt, was a wonderful contrast to Land's End, three years ago. Round Lizard Point, the Old Lifeboat Station with the 'Most Southerly Cafe' above it were clearly memorable from 'Wycliffe' (although the Most Southerly Cafe becomes a holiday cottage for the purposes of the television programme).
The instructions from Contours told us to keep on the South West Coast Path to the road, but we followed a very attractive footpath instead, past a profusion of wildflowers. The Caerthillian B&B (a blue and white house opposite the Post Office) was very easy to find, but the description of 'small' in our instructions was not accurate! We were greeted by Sylvia Pratt who has run the B&B for two years with her son and daughter-in-law. We had a wonderful room with a view to Kynance Cove. We ate at the Top House Inn (lovely fish pie, Ratler Pear Cider and a display of goods made from serpentine) then returned to our room and watched the sun set over Kynance Cove.
