The Penwith tour: – Land’s End

Land’s End – the world famous destination in West Cornwall

Land’s End is so well known throughout the world. It is arguably the one destination that all of our visitors have plans to visit at one point in their stay in Cornwall.

Our B&B is strictly for grown ups and so I suggest a slightly different approach to our guests for thier visit to Land’s End.

Visiting Land’s End

• Park at Sennen Cove (which is also much less expensive than the Peninsular)
• Take the coastal path to Land’s End and enjoy the full isolated beauty of the cliff top scenery. (The footpath that has been much improved over the years.)
• This route is crossed by prehistoric field boundaries and bounded by Bronze Age burial Cairns and passes an Iron Age cliff castle and it gives a real unspoilt flavour of this national monument in an Area of outstanding Natural beauty.
• There is even a shipwreck to be seen along the way the remains of the RMS Mulheim who ran aground on the 22nd of March in 2003.

Walking to Land’s End

I found this entry on the South West Coastal path site to be the best one to follow with lots of extra info! http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/walksdb/28/

Shipwrecks and light houses

The treacherous rocks and reefs off of land’s End have led to countless ship wrecks over the centuries with one hundred and thirty recorded sites.  The turbulent waters and sudden sea mist have led many ships to founder and it wasn’t until the erection of Longships lighthouse on the highest Longship islet of Carn Bras in 1795 that conditions improved. It was replaced in 1869 by a taller lighthouse using many of the materials from Wolf Rock light house http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/history/shipwrec.php

The reefs have a fearsome history and names that are still familiar: – Wolf Rock; The Seven Stones reef; Kettles bottom and Shark’s fin

Today the waterway is well lit within the triangle of Wolf Rock lighthouse, Longships Light house and the Lizard Lighthouse

The lost land of Lyonesse

Finally stand at Land’s End and look out to sea towards the Scilly Isles. An archipelago of islands rodulent with the legend of the Lost Lands of Lyonesse . Lyonesse was a mythical kingdom claimed by the sea. It is said that one resident, John Trevelyan, survived because he had such a swift horse he was able to out gallop the incoming sea. To this day the Trevelyan arms features a leaping horse and it is said that the Trevelyan’s always kept a horse saddled in their stables overnight, in memory of the feat.

From Land’s End the road stretches through the World heritage site: –  the famous Botallack mine, the Levant beam engine and Geevor mine

The road itself has been road voted one of the Nation’s favourite drives. For the next part of the tour we will explore the ancient character of Cornwall as the winding road passes through granite farmyards, bounded by the high wild moors and tiny green fields dropping down to the sea with boundaries unchanged from the bronze age.

You may have noticed that today’s photos are  a departure from my usual snaps. I am indebted to Mike McNally Photography who took a scenic flight from Land’s End with his wife. This Christmas they sent us this lovely disk of photos to show to you. Do pop along to Mike’s website for more photos.

To follow the Penwith Tour 

The Penwith tour follows the sea around West Cornwall – to read other sections please click the boxes below

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*Penwith is an ancient local name for this area was used for local government districts around Penzance.