The cliffs above Hell's Mouth are one of the highest points in the area at just under 300 feet. The cove, cliffs and two isolated stacks out to sea are breeding grounds for guillemots, razorbills and fulmars. The caves were once used by smugglers.
There is a blowhole in the caves on the east side of the beach which makes a boom as compressed air escapes, towards high tide. There is also a good view of the blowhole towards the end of Navax Head which, when the tide is high and there is a sufficient swell, produces a large horizontal jet of spray.
Fishing Cove is a north-facing sandy beach on Navax Head, separated by a thin, rocky promontory from Castle Giver Cove. To avoid any surprises when spotting seals with binoculars, it’s worth noting that Fishing Cove is a naturist beach. There is a steep path down to the beach which is reported as challenging. The name "Castle Giver" is from the Cornish words Castel Gaver ("castle of the goats"), perhaps referring to the precipitous nature of the cliff paths here.
In Nov 1854 the steamship "Nile" was on its way from Liverpool to Penzance. On the approach to Cornwall, a storm blew up. As the vessel began to turn along the coastline of Penwith in preparation to round Land's End, it hit the outer edge of the Stones Reef. The ship floated free from the reef but was holed and sank in deep water. One lifeboat was launched but there were no survivors either amongst the crew or passengers. The empty lifeboat was found on the shore.
The heathland on Navax Point is known as The Knavocks, which is thought to be from the Cornish word for Autumn dwelling Kynyavos. It is some of the best heathland in Cornwall for wildlife, providing a habitat for a range of butterflies and birds. The heath is maintained by the National Trust who graze it with ponies and the gorse is also cut back regularly to stop it overwhelming the other vegetation.
Gorse flower wine can be made using 5 litres of gorse flowers stripped from the stems and simmering these in 5 litres of boiling water. Once the flowers are removed, 1.3kg of sugar should be dissolved in the hot water and allowed to cool to room temperature. Then add 500g of chopped raisins and juice and zest of 2 lemons and ferment with white wine yeast and yeast nutrient. Although flowers are present year-round, they are best picked in spring (April and May) when they are most profuse and fragrant.
Gorse seeds each contain a small body of ant food. The seeds also release a chemical which attracts ants from some distance away. The ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the ant food and then discard the seeds, helping them to disperse.
Kynance Cove on Godrevy Head is a small, inaccessible, rocky beach which is north facing so barely gets any sunshine, and thus much disappointment would arise from packing a bucket and spade, expecting to visit the picture-postcard sandy cove by the same name. The name in this case is thought to come from Porth Kynyavos, meaning "cove of the autumn dwelling" whereas the somewhat more famous south-facing beach on the Lizard is thought to be from keynans meaning "ravine".
Seals are easily disturbed by the presence of humans (and dogs) and this is can be the difference between life and death for seals in several different ways. Perhaps the most obvious is that a panicking seal is liable to injure itself rushing for the water. When breeding, even mild disturbance can lead to mothers abandoning their pups which then starve to death. More subtly, disturbance also causes seals to burn up their precious energy reserves. Even in a "good" year, 75% of young seals can end up dying due to insufficient energy reserves (95% in a very bad year!). If a seal looks at you, this should ring alarm bells as it means you're too close. To watch seals responsibly, it's important to keep your distance (at least 100m), avoid being conspicuous (e.g. on the skyline) and minimise noise.
There is a large grey seal colony in Mutton Cove and from the cliff top, the seals can be seen swimming in the sea or on the beach during breeding season. Up to 80 seals have been observed on the beach at one time. Although there is a path down to the beach, it is strongly recommended that you do not descend to the beach as this will drive away the seals; even the presence of noisy onlookers on the coast path has been found to disturb them.
The Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust gather information about the numbers of seals in each location to study migration behaviour. Each seal has a unique pattern of spots which is like a fingerprint, allowing individuals to be identified so photos are also very useful.
If you see one or more seals, take a photo if possible but never approach the seals to take a photo - use a zoom from a clifftop. Send the location, date, number of seals and photos if you have them to sightings@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk.
The Stones Reef off Godrevy Point has always been a shipping hazard and a lighthouse had been considered for a long time, but nothing was done until in 1854, the SS Nile was wrecked with the loss of all on board. The lighthouse was finished in 1859 and is a 26m tall octagonal tower, located on the largest rock of the reef. The lighthouse inspired Virginia Woolfe's novel "To the Lighthouse", despite her setting the novel in The Hebrides. In 2012, the light was decommissioned and replaced with an LED light on a platform facing the sea. The tower is still maintained as a daytime navigation aid.
More about Godrevy Lighthouse and Virginia Woolfe in Cornwall
On 30th January 1649, the Prince of Wales did not have a good day! His father (Charles I) was decapitated and on the same day a ship named The Garland carrying many of his possessions, including his entire wardrobe and that of his mother, was wrecked on the Stones Reef. There were only three survivors from the wreck - a man, a boy, and a dog. A few of the garments washed ashore, but the majority of the cargo was lost and divers still search the reef in the hope of finding treasure.
Dunes (called towans in Cornish) form when dry sand from the beach is blown by the wind, and initially lodges against an obstruction, eventually forming a ridge. More sand can then accumulate against the ridge and vegetation such as marram grass can then take hold, preventing the resulting sand hill from washing or blowing away.
At high tide there is little or no beach at Godrevy but as the tide goes out, a beach of golden sand is revealed bracketed between rock platforms. At low tide Godrevy beach joins with Gwithian beach, forming the northern tip of the ribbon of sand that runs all the way to the Hayle river. Note that "Godrevy Cove" is a different beach near St Keverne.
Godrevy is a Cornish word meaning "small farms" or "hamlets". The headland is thought to be more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rocks due to bands of sandstone and slate which are harder than the surrounding mudstones. Sightings of dolphins and porpoises are fairly frequent from the point and basking sharks and oceanic sunfish are also sometimes reported.
The RNLI was founded in 1824 under the original name of the National Institution for Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. It was renamed to the RNLI in 1854. Until 1890 all the lifeboats were rowed with oars until some steam-powered boats were introduced. By 1905, petrol-powered boats were being trialled and fairly quickly replaced the bulky steam-powered predecessors. Today a fleet of over 340 lifeboats provide a 24/7 search and rescue service around the UK. The charity has saved over 140,000 lives since it was set up.
Despite its name, the glow worm is not a worm. In fact it's a beetle that looks a bit like an elongated woodlouse. During the day you're unlikely to notice one, but at night the last few segments of the female's abdomen glow like an incredibly bright yellow LED. The female (who can't fly) uses her light to attract males (who can fly). Once she has mated, the proverbial and literal light goes out on her relationship.
Until electric lighting was introduced, the light for a lighthouse was produced by burning a thin oil such as paraffin. However this wasn't burnt on a wick like domestic lighting. Instead, a pressurised system was used, typically powered by a hand pump, to force the oil through a nozzle to create fine mist which instantly vaporised in the heat from combustion. This mixture of paraffin gas and air burnt rapidly, generating a bright light. As well as header tanks in the lighthouse itself, larger storage tanks were needed nearby.
The chimney is thought to be the remains of a furnace for roasting tin ore to drive off impurities such as arsenic. This was part of a sandworks site which extracted tin ore in the form of gravel from the beach and dunes. This was in operation during late Victorian times and continued through the 20th Century until the Second World War.
During the early 19th Century, a small chapel (also known as an Oratory) was discovered with the relics of St Gwithean (also known as Gocianus or Gothian) which according to some sources was thought to have been built in AD 490. It was recorded in 1925 that the "oratory ... is more perfect than the Oratory at Perran, having been less meddled with, though it is probably not so ancient". The oratory was allowed to be reclaimed by the shifting sands and now lies buried beneath the dunes. In 2000, a piece of stone wall was observed sticking out from the dunes and this was identified as the top of the buried oratory. It is located within a fenced-off area in the field near the bridge over the Red River.
The mediaeval cross at Gwealavellan was found to be in use as a gatepost and was restored by Camborne Old Cornwall Society. It was one of thirteen marking the route from Gwithian to Camborne Church. The name of the farm - Gwealavellan - is from the Cornish words gwel a melyn meaning "view of the mill".
The Ramblers Association and National Farmers Union suggest some "dos and don'ts" for walkers which we've collated with some info from the local Countryside Access Team.
Do
Don't
The tall trees in the valley make good perches for crows.
The word crow is from the Old English crawe. Since this sounds a lot like the noise the bird makes, there is a misconception that the Old English is directly derived from this. In fact the word is far older. It's related the the Old Saxon kraia and can be traced back further to a Proto-Indo-European word from the late Neolithic period which is thought to mean "to call hoarsely".
The stream is a tributary of the Red River but where the natural confluence would have been (probably somewhere near Reskajeage that the small lane passed) the course of both the stream and river have been modified by streamworks to extract tin from the river.
Mineral works have been carried out in the Red River catchment area for many centuries and the river water was used for separation processes and as a source of power to drive mills. Relics from this still exist in the form of modifications along the river's course including embankments, diversions and canal-like channels. Even with the advent of steam power during Victorian times, this was still one of the most industrialised areas of Cornwall. Until the late 20th century, the river water was coloured a distinctive red, stained by iron ore washing out of the slime pits and dressing floors into the tributary streams. Towards the end of the 19th Century it was estimated that £30,000 of tin was being lost from the mines into the river each year and "squatters" could earn a living by recovering this from the slimy river-bed.
Unlike many birds that just sing in spring, robins sing nearly all year round. In fact during winter if you hear birdsong, it's most likely to be a robin. Despite how cute robins look, they are actually very territorial and the chirp is an aggressive warning to any would-be intruders not to even think of trying it. When robins don't sing, this a sign that their body fat reserves are low and they are conserving what little they have left until food becomes more plentiful.
Jackdaws can be distinguished from other members of the crow family by their short black beaks and grey necks. They are smaller than all the other black birds in the crow family and are only slightly larger than jays.
Virginia Woolfe, the modernist 20th Century writer, was strongly influenced by spending every summer in the family's holiday home (Talland House) in St Ives during her childhood. In her own words: "Why am I so incredibly and incurably romantic about Cornwall?" She returned to Cornwall many times in her adult life to spend time walking.
The large black birds nesting on offshore rocks, known colloquially as the cormorant and shag, are two birds of the same family and to the untrained eye look pretty similar. The origin of the name "shag" is a crest that this species has on top of its head and the cormorant doesn't. The cormorant is the larger of the two birds with a whiter throat. The shag's throat is yellow, and mature shags have a metallic green sheen on their feathers which cormorants lack.
Stonechats are robin-sized birds with a black head and orange breast that are common along the Cornish coast all year round.
The name "stonechat" comes from the sound of their call which resembles stones being knocked together.
During the summer months, stonechats eat invertebrates. As temperatures drop and there are not so many of these about, they make do with seeds and fruit such as blackberries. Quite a few die in cold winters but this is offset by their fast breeding rate during the warmer months.
A similar-looking bird called the whinchat is also present in the summer but this can be identified by a white stripe across its eye. Both stonechats and whinchats can often be spotted perching on dead sticks or brambles protruding above gorse and heather, and consequently the term "gorse chat" or "furze chat" has been used locally to mean either species. For a long time, stonechats and whinchats were thought to be members of the thrush family but genetic studies have revealed they are actually members of the (Old World) flycatcher family.
The process of placing trig points on top of prominent hills and mountains began in 1935 to assist in the retriangulation of Great Britain - a project to improve the accuracy of maps which took three decades.
A plate (known as a "flush bracket" and marked with an ID code) on the side of each trig point marked a known measured height above sea level. The brass plate on the top with three arms and central depression (known as a "spider") was used to mount a theodolite which was used to measure the angles between neighbouring trig points very accurately. These angles allowed the construction of a system of triangles which covered the entire country and provided a measurement system accurate to around 20 metres.
Wild thyme grows along the coast and flowers from June to September with tiny pink flowers. During mediaeval times, the plant was a symbol of bravery, possibly due to derivation from the Greek word thumos, meaning anger or spiritedness. An embroidered motif of a bee on a sprig of thyme is said to have been given by mediaeval ladies to their favoured knight.
Coastal land management including removal of excess gorse and grazing to keep taller plants in trim has allowed wild thyme to become more widespread as well as the Cornish chough. Wild thyme is a nectar source for many bees and butterflies and the food plant for young caterpillars of the large blue butterfly.
The evening primrose family of plants originated on the American continent and were introduced into gardens in the UK in the 17th Century. They are colonising plants, capable of growing on sand dunes and waste ground and so some have spread into the wild. One plant can produce 150,000 seeds in a year.
The flowers open in the late afternoon (hence the name) and last only one day. Their pollen is held together by threads which prevents day-flying bee species without the necessary specialisations from collecting it. This is targeted at moths which forage in the evening and are attracted using a lemony scent.
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