Drive to Lizard Point at the real southernmost end of England.
Walk along the coast to the old Lifeboot House.
For the relaxation we ourselves allowed "Cream Tea with Scones" in the southernmost coffee of England.

The Lizard peninsula is an isolated outpost of Cornwall with a strong character all of its own and a distinctive, unfamiliar landscape. Inland are the barren expanses of Goonhilly and Lizard Downs, a strong and sombre plain softened, in late summer, by the lilac, pink and white flowers of the rare Cornish heather Erica vagans. Around the Lizard's coast this ancient plateau gives way to broken cliffs draped in wild flowers, tiny embattled coves, and treacherous rocks in a sea of improbable blue. Despite its isolation, the Lizard has long drawn intrepid visitors to its two principal attractions: Lizard Point itself (the most southerly point in Britain) and, two miles north along the coast, Kynance Cove.

Lizard Point

Down at Britain's most southerly point itself are two cafes, a shop and two serpentine workshops. In decent visibility there is rarely a moment when there are not serval shipping movements to observe. This is the turning point of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, and the sight of Lizard has lifted the heart of countless home-bound mariners.
Below and to the west, Polpeor Cove, is the disused lifeboat staton, which operated from 1859 until 1961 when the new Lizard-Cadgwith lifeboat station was built in the lee of Bass Point to the east. One can only wonder at the skill and courage of the men who launched an open boat into the treacherous reefs in the teeth of a south-westerly gale. Despite these dangers, hundreds of lives were saved from here.

The Frederick H. Pilley, which served from 1920 to 1934 saving 130 lives, shown here at the Polpeor lifeboat station in 1924.

In 1991, the Trust was able to take the opportunity to buy the most southerly point, with a considerable acreage of farmland, and embark on a much-needed and extensive programme of landscape improvment, thanks to a major legacy from Mr Cyril Medley.

Then continuation of the journey to the car park of Kynance Cove and a beautiful walk along the Coast Patches to the Kynance Cove.

Kynance Cove

Kynance - a vision of white sand, turquoise water, islands, stacks and arches hidden amongst the towering cliffs - is one of Cornwall's most beautiful places. The name is derived from the Cornish "kewnans", meaning "ravine". The cove itself has a wide expanse of sand exposed a low water, with giant mounds of multicoloured serpentine rock rearing up all around, one of which is named Albert Rock after Prince Albert who brought his children here in 1846. To the west of the cove and amongst the islands there are interconnected caves (to be explored during the safety of low tide only) with splendid Victorian names such as the Ladies' Bathing Pool, the Drawing Room, the Devil's Letterbox and the Devil's Bellows.

To the Cove

Although many walkers use the coast path, most of today's visitors arrive at the car park on the cliff top. Such an exposed site seems unusual - the Trust is generally known for its skilful camouflaging of such developments - but the position is historical.
Althoug the Trust has owned part of the cove since 1935, it had no control over what happened in the cliff-top fields where, with the rise in popularity of motor car touring in the '30s, a car park, a cafe and a shop were built, together with a particulary prominent house. In 1986, thanks to a bequest from Mr Mark Hunter, the Trust was at last able to buy the road and a car park complex and start to manage it in a different way. Putting conservation before commerce, the Trust demolished the house and shop which had so dominated this lonely landscape and re-routed the cove path inland, away from the erosion-scarred cliff top.
Leaving the lower end of the car park, the new path follows the valley of the Goose Curtain Brook down to the cove; a smaller path heading up to the right around Tor Balk provides a link to the far side of the cove at high water when the main route is impassable.
A magnificent viewpoint above the cove can be reached via a surfaced path that runs from the car park across the cliff-top heath and grassland. This area was so badly eroded by visitors' feet that little remained of the botanical splendours for which Kynance is renowned. With restoration complete, the vegetation is now recovering well and the cliffs are once again carpeted with flowers in the spring.


Geology

The secret of dramatic scenery at Kynance lies in its underlying rocks. Serpentine, with colourful intrusions of gneiss and red granite, not only shapes the landforms but is also responsible for the vegetation - some of which is unique to Britain. let alone the South West.
This outcorp of serpentine covers almost 20 square miles and is the largest found anywhere in Britain. It was originally a basic igneous rock called peridotite which was formed deep in the earth's crust and intruded into the ancient sediments of the Lizard. Over many millions of years it has been subjected to great pressure and high temperature and has been altered to serpentine and secondary, largely reddish, iron oxides. The differences in its mineral content can produce a rich variety of colours; where the stone is freshly exposed it is 'warm, deep, variegated, mottled and streaked and veined with red, green and white' (Kilvert 1870). Geologits in the sixteenth century called the stone "serpentine" because of its resemblance to the skin of a snake, particulary when wet.
Local craftsmen have for many years cut and polished the stone, producing souvernirs that are sold in the workshops of Lizard Town. This trade in small carvings brought a welcome addition to a hard livelihood on the farm. Throughout the area many small pits and quarries made by the serpentine-diggers ,any still be found, now usually filled with water and being used as breeding-grounds for newts and frogs.
Around 12 million years ago the Lizard peninsula was entirely covered by the sea. The level plain that we see today represents an elevated wave-eroded surface, once of the best examples in Britain. The serpentine weathers very slowly and is covered with a layer of clay which is barren and almost impermeable to water, thus it is rarely suitable for cultivation. The extraordinary flatness and stability of this dense platform makes it a excellent site for the largest sattelite communications station in the world whose gigantic dishes dominate the landscape of Goonhilly Downs.


Plant and Animals

Although reowned for its spectacular beauty, Kynance is principally valued for its ecology. Some plants found here grow nowhere else in the whole Britain. Its mild climate and southerly position are two reasons why the Lizard is recognized as being of international importance for certain habitats, insects and plants. Other significant factors are the low level of agriculture disturbance, and the underlying serpentine rock which weathers to produce an infertile soil which nevertheless supports a distinctive plant community.
Rare sedges and minute liverworts are unusually common on the serpentine rocks and in the pools and puddles on old trackways that criss-cross the heathland. The maritime heath and grasslands are home to many interesting insects, including unusual moths, nine rare spiders and a woodlouse common to Spain and Brittany.
The vegetation inland may appear to be an unvarying expanse of gorse, rushes and heather, but the heather is a particular rarity. Erica vagans, Cornish heath, is widespread on the Lizard but found nowhere else in Britain. Nearer the coast, closer inspection of the grassland reveals that it is mixed with a rich variety of short-growing and dwarf plants like kidney vetch, common milkwort, ladies bedstraw and common self-heal. Many of these plants cannot survive the trampling from large numbers of visitors and often disappear from the heavily-used sections of the cliff whilst, conversely, others actually need disturbance in order to thrive.

After a picnic we drove to the National Seal Sanctuary

Europe's leading marine animal rescue centre the National Seal Sanctuaryis dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of many injured and abandoned seals found mainly around Cornwall's coastline. It was founded in 1958 at St. Agnes on the North coast of Cornwall by Ken Jones, a retired Welsh miner who had recently moved to the area to open a beach cafe with his family. The concept of the Sanctuary was developed after be found a young, abandoned Grey Seal pup lying alone and helpless on the beach. Althaugh unsuccesful with his first attempt at rehabilitation, he was not deterred from helping the numerous pups which were found in distress and brought to him by passers by.

Temperature: circa 22°C - sunny

Driven miles: 56 = 90 km