The word granite comes from the Latin granum (a grain), in reference to its coarse-grained structure. Granite forms from a big blob of magma (known as a pluton) which intrudes into the existing rocks. The huge mass of molten rock stores an enormous amount of heat so the magma cools very slowly below the surface of the Earth, allowing plenty of time for large crystals to form.
An eye-catching characteristic of Land's End granite is the long, white crystals of feldspar within the rocks known as "megacrysts" which, the scientific evidence suggests, were formed as the magma slowly cooled.
Geese migrate to warmer climates for the winter and fly in a V-shaped formation known as a skein or wedge (on the ground, a collection of geese is known as a gaggle). The V-formation allows birds behind the leader to fly more efficiently as the rising air from flapping wings of the bird ahead helps to support the weight of the one behind. This can increase the range that the bird can fly by over 70%. The birds each take it in turns to do the harder job of flying at the front.
The headland at Land's End has been designated part of an Important Plant Area by the organisation Plantlife for rare species of flora. A band of coastal heath extends all the way from Sennen to Gwennap Head, but different steepnesses of slopes support different plant species.
Several species of heather grow in Cornwall and are most easily recognised when they flower from July to September. The one with the most brightly coloured (purple) flowers is known as bell heather due to the bell-shaped flowers. This is the earliest one to start flowering - normally in June. Bell heather is usually interspersed with ling or common heather which has much smaller flowers which are usually paler and pinker and come out at the start of July. A third kind known as cross-leafed heath is less abundant but can be recognised by the pale pink bell-shaped flowers that grow only near the tips of the stems, resembling pink lollipops. A fourth species known as Cornish heath grows only on the Lizard and has more elaborate flowers which are mostly pale with a dark purple crown at the front.
Gannets are the largest sea birds in the North Atlantic with a wingspan of up to 2 metres and are easily recognisable by their long white wings with black tips. Gannets can dive from up to 30 metres, achieving speeds of up to 100kph as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish much deeper than most seabirds. To achieve this they have air sacs in their face and chest, which act as cushioning when they hit the water. Also they have no external nostrils, instead they are situated inside the mouth.
Granite formed as a molten blob of rock beneath the surface, underneath millions of tons of other rock. As the granite cooled, it cracked, mostly vertically due to the pressure from above. Hot water circulated through the cracks, reacting chemically with the rocks and depositing minerals. Over millions of years, the softer rocks above were eroded and the pressure from the weight of the rock above was released, causing horizontal cracking in the granite. The result is cubic blocks where the rough edges have been gradually smoothed by weathering.
The piles or rings of stones known as cairns, were built for a variety of purposes: some ceremonial including burials, some practical such as markers in a calendric sundial. Although much speculation has taken place, the reason for the construction of each is now unknown. When radiocarbon dating was done on nine of the cairns on Bodmin Moor, eight gave average date ranges between 2162 to 1746 BC, suggesting the early Bronze Age was the main building period. The remnants you see today are in many cases a small fragment of the original structure as the rocks from many cairns have since been "re-purposed" for use in drystone walls, buildings, roads etc. The Cornish word for cairn is karn or carn (from karnow, meaning "rock piles") and Cornwall (Kernow) itself may actually be named after the cairns that dot its landscape.
The island with a cave is known as Enys Dodnan and provides a nesting site for black-backed gulls. This first part of the name is the Cornish word for "island". The second may have a similar origin to Dodman Point on The Roseland, referring to the bodies washed ashore from shipwrecks i.e. "Dead Man's Point/Island".
The pyramidal inshore rock is known as the Armed Knight. The name is thought to stem from the spire of rock protruding from the top resembling a jousting pole. According to one source, the rock was once known by the Cornish names An Marogeth Arvowed (the armed knight) and Carne-an-peul (javelin rock).
The Greater Black-backed Gull is the largest member of the gull family and a bird of formidable size, with a wingspan of nearly 6ft. Unlike other gulls, the Greater Black-backed Gull is highly predatory. Young birds are a significant portion of its diet and it tends to live amongst other seabirds where it can eat the neighbours. It has also been known to swallow whole rabbits and even eat young lambs. It often steals food from other seabirds using its large size to intimidate them into dropping it, and consequently it is sometimes referred to as a pirate.
The Longships Lighthouse is located just over a mile off Land's End on the highest of the islets known as Carn Bras. The original tower built in 1795 was 40ft high, perched on the 39ft high rock but despite the lantern being nearly 80ft above the sea, it was sometimes obscured by the huge waves off Lands End. A new taller tower was therefore constructed starting in 1869 and completed in 1873 and was manned until 1988. The current lantern emits a white flash seaward, but red-tinted glass colours the light for any vessel straying to the headlands to the north or south.
There are three named rocks within the Longships reef:
Well over 100 wrecks are recorded off Land's End. The reefs off Lands End were so treacherous for sailing vessels that many of the pilgrims from Ireland on their way to the continent preferred to walk from one coast of Cornwall to the other rather than rely on faith for this part of their journey.
The 12 mile crossing from Lelant to Marazion, known as St Micheal's Way, also avoided the perilous coastline at Pendeen and the Runnelstone reef near Gwennap Head.
The 29 mile Saint's Way crossing from Padstow to Fowey additionally avoided the hazardous reefs of Trevose Head, Godrevy and The Lizard.
The complex of buildings at Land's End is situated on Dr Johnson's Head, named after the 18th Century writer Samuel Johnson.
The development of Land’s End as a tourist attraction began back in the mid 1850s. It was owned by many generations of a local family who oversaw the development until 1980.
In 1982, Land's End was purchased by Welsh businessman David Goldstone for 2.25 million, outbidding the National Trust who were hoping to prevent over-commercialisation. In 1983, Goldstone introduced an admission charge which lead to riots with people lying across the road to block traffic. It was sold again in 1987 for 7 million to Peter De Savary. Two new buildings were constructed and the theme park was created.
Thrift is a tough evergreen plant which grows on sea cliffs and consequently it's the county flower of the Scilly Isles. To survive in this environment it needs to be able to withstand drought and salt-laden winds. Its long, thin leaves and hairy flower stems have evolved to minimise water loss.
We assume the name arises from the sea appearing to boil as it breaks on the reef.
Land's End is the most westerly point on the English mainland and is consequently the last place that the sun sets on mainland England. It is 5.73 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian and since each 15 degrees is an hour of time difference, Land's End is 22 minutes and 28 seconds behind London. It's therefore possible to drink a couple of glasses of wine watching the sun set whilst all the while it's been dark in London. The official Cornish name Pen an Wlas means "End of the Earth". The earliest record of a name is Penwith Steort from 997 which is Old English for "End of Penwith". As the name was by non-Cornish speakers, they probably didn't realise that Penwith already meant "extreme end".
The most westerly point on the British mainland is named Dr Syntax's Head after a fictitious schoolmaster hero in three popular books between 1812 and 1821. The character was portrayed with a long, pointed chin which the narrow peninsula of land resembles.
The small inlet on the left is Zawn Turbis.
According to "The Z to Z of Great Britain", there are just over 40 place names in Britain that begin with the letter Z; over three-quarters of them are in Cornwall. One of the main reasons for this is that the Cornish word for "coastal inlet" is zawn, and coastline is something that Cornwall has rather a lot of.
Maen Castle was an Iron Age promontory fort, protected by a bank reinforced with granite boulders. It is one of only two fortified sites in Cornwall where Early Iron Age pottery has been found. There are some indications that the site may have been occupied before the defences were constructed, possibly in the Bronze Age or Neolithic times.
The name is from Men - the Cornish word for "stone". The name "Mayon Cliff" is likely to have similar origins.
The RMS Mulheim was a large cargo ship which ran aground near Land's End in spring 2003. The chief officer, who was on watch, caught his trousers on a lever on his chair as he stood up and fell, hitting his head and becoming unconscious. By the time he awoke, the ship was approaching the shoreline and was too close to be able to turn and it ran aground in Gamper Bay. The ship was carrying over 2000 tonnes of plastic scrap from cars. Most of the cargo was removed but some was lost in the ocean as the hull started to break up. Storms the following autumn finally broke the wreck in two and pushed the pieces into Castle Zawn. Some of the cargo washed up on Cornish beaches over the next year or so.
The folk tale of how the Irish Lady rock got its name is that a ship with an Irish crew was wrecked off Land's End and the only survivor was a woman who managed to climb from the sea onto the rock. According to the tale, the locals were unable to reach her to rescue her and she died of exposure.
In 1891, the granite lookout was built on the cliffs at Pedn-Men-Du for use by the Sennen Coastguard. It is now owned by the National Trust and during the summer, the lookout is open to the public and equipped with telescopes. Dolphins, Ocean Sunfish, Basking Sharks and Royal Marines have all been sighted from here. A whiteboard inside records details of recent observations.
The main Sennen Coastguard Station was built in 1812 and initially consisted of a row of eight houses, a fuel house and a store which housed the rocket cart and rescue equipment, close to the steps where the coast path climbs the headland. The Sennen station was closed after a reorganisation of the coastguard service in the early 1980s, and the Lands End coastguard service now operates out of Polgigga, on the main road to both Sennen and Gwennap Head.
Between Bude and Land's End, National Cycle Routes 3 and 32 are collectively known as the Cornish Way, stretching for 123 miles.
The reason that Cape Cornwall could once have been thought to be the most westerly point of the British mainland it that is almost is. The tip of Cape Cornwall is further west than the coastguard lookout overlooking Sennen Cove and the shipwreck near Land's End.
In fact, the longitude of Cape Cornwall's most westerly point is approximately equivalent to the exit from the Land's End coach parking area. The most westerly point on Dr Syntax's head is only about 450 metres further west than this.
The smallest of the rocks off Land's End and sometimes mistaken for a whale or other large sea creature.
Foxgloves have a life cycle which spans two years. The seeds germinate in spring and during their first year they produce a "rosette" of large, velvety green leaves with toothed edges. These are particularly noticeable from October onwards once other vegetation has died back. The leafy foxglove plants remain dormant throughout the winter, ready for a quick start in the spring.
In spring, whilst foxgloves seeds are germinating, the established foxglove plants from the previous year start producing their characteristic flower spike. Once these have been fertilised and the seeds have been produced then the plant dies. One foxglove plant can produce over 2 million seeds.
Foxgloves are reliant on bumblebees for pollination and bumblebees are much more active when the weather is good. Partly, as an insurance policy against bad weather, foxgloves have evolved to stagger their flowering over several weeks, starting with the flowers at the base of the stalk and working up to the top, where the higher flowers protrude over other vegetation that has grown up in that time.
The male and female parts of a foxglove flower mature at different times to help avoid self-fertilisation. This also ties in with the flowers maturing at the bottom of the spike first as pollinators often start at the lowest flower and then work upwards. They land on the mature female flowers first with a cargo of pollen from another plant, and then leave via the mature male flowers with a new load of pollen.
Although nearly all foxgloves are purple, a fairly rare white form does occur and an even more rare pink form sometimes occurs along with this.
As well as attracting insects, the brightly coloured foxglove flowers serve as a warning for animals that the plants contain toxins. All parts of the plant can cause a range of ill-effects in humans from nausea to heart and kidney problems which can be fatal.
The common name "foxglove" dates back many hundreds of years but the origin is unknown. The "gloves" almost certainly refers to the shape of the flowers, and the Latin name Digitalis (finger-like) is along similar lines. The curious part is the "fox" and many different suggestions have been made as to where it came from. It is possible that it is a corruption of another word. One suggestion is "folks" which was once used to mean "fairies".
If you come across a gorse bush covered in red threads, this is dodder - a parasitic plant. The red colour is because the dodder contains no chlorophyll. Instead of manufacturing its own food by photosynthesis, it pierces another plant (often gorse) and siphons nutrients from this. Its leaves have shrunk to tiny proportions for the same reason - they aren't needed to catch any sunlight.
Once a dodder seed sprouts, the dodder seedling only has 5-10 days of energy reserves to reach a host plant before it dies. It uses chemo-sensors (equivalent to taste and smell) to locate and home in on a green plant.
The name comes directly from mediaeval English and is thought to be unrelated to the verb "to dodder". It also has a range of folk names - some refer to the colour (e.g. fireweed and devil's guts), some refer to its parasitic nature (strangleweed and beggarweed) and others refer to its structure (wizard's net and witch's hair).
The Sea Campion flowers from June to August and can be recognised by the white petals emerging from the end of a distinctive inflated envelope. Their grey-green leaves are fleshy, which protect them from drying out in salt-laden winds.
According to folklore, to pick a Sea Campion was to invite death. This might be something to do with the precipitous locations in which they grow! Consequently another name for the plant is "dead man's bells".
Sorrel is native to the UK and common in fields and hedgerows. It's salt tolerant so it can often be found on the coast in Cornwall. The leaves resemble small, narrow dock leaves. In summer the plant is often evident in abundance in fields by its red seeds at the top of a tall stalk.
Sorrel leaves have a pleasant lemony flavour but before being tempted to try one, it's important first to learn how to avoid one of the most common poisoning mistakes from eating wild plants - how to distinguish sorrel leaves from the poisonous lily Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) as the latter causes serious irritation if consumed as it contains needle-like crystals that puncture mucous membranes. There's a video here.
In common with many vegetables, sorrel contains oxalic acid. Exactly how much is a bit unclear: many articles mention "high amounts" though some published studies report a lower percentage than in spinach, parsley or rhubarb, though don't specify how easily soluble the oxalic acid is in each case. Oxalic acid is poisonous if enough is consumed and prolonged exposure can cause kidney stones. It's therefore a good idea not to eat foods high in oxalic acid every day or in very large quantities.
Sorrel is used as a culinary herb in many cuisines and in Cornwall during Victorian times, sorrel was known as "green sauce". Some of the most well-known uses are in soups or as a salad vegetable. In French cuisine it is sometimes used when cooking fish as - similarly to lemon - the acidic juice can soften thin fish bones during cooking.
1000 Millennium Mileposts were funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland for the National Cycle Network. The cast iron signposts come in four designs:
In 1898, the Longships lighthouse was almost obliterated by an off course ship. The SS Bluejacket ran up the reef and its remains now lie in the shallows. The captain left course instructions with the first mate and then retired to his quarters. On passing Wolf Rock, the mate asked the captain for further instruction but the captain was reluctant to return from his quarters. The inexperienced mate decided to steer directly at the Longships lighthouse with predictable consequences. The captain was charged with neglect of his duties. A reason was not stated, but amongst those saved by the Sennen lifeboat was the Captain's wife.
In September 1921, the steamship "Lambaness" (formerly known as the SS Sheila) was carrying coal from South Wales to Brittany. As she passed along the Penwith coast she ran into thick fog and heavy seas. She struck the rocks off Dr Syntax's Head at Lands End and sank. The crew managed to escape in the ship's boats and landed at Sennen Cove.
Photo from 1921 on wrecksite.eu (more info about the wreck on wrecksite.eu)
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.
Jackdaws are able to recognise eye gestures from humans (e.g. if someone looks at where a food item is hidden). It has been suggested that jackdaws may use this with other birds too and this may be the reason that they have a striking blue eye colour that is easily seen from a distance.
Jackdaws are very adept vocal mimics and have been known to sing virtually anything including opera and Madonna! They can be trained to copy the human voice but only for single words or short phrases.
Jackdaws also use a their calls in a democratic process to make group decisions for a flock such as whether to move location. If enough of the birds "vote" by making their voice heard, the entire flock will respect this and take off, even the birds that didn't vote for it.
Jackdaws have been found to share food and will share more of a preferred food than an unpleasant one. Although the sharing often takes place in courtship and parenting, the behaviour has also been observed in unrelated birds. It is thought that this pro-social behaviour might be a sign of reciprocity ("do unto others...") and possibly empathy.
The chough is a member of the crow family, with striking red legs and a red beak. They are also recognisable from feathers, spread like fingers, on their wing tips. It was known as the "Crow of Cornwall" and appears on the county coat of arms. The birds have a loud, distinctive "chee-ow" call which is perhaps best described as resembling a squeaky dog toy! Once you've heard it a couple of times, you'll be able to recognise them from the sound long before you can see them.
The name "chough" is from the bird's call although this is not that accurate as "chough" is more like the sound a jackdaw makes (a very short "chu"). Locally, choughs were known as "chaws" which is a better representation of their (much longer) sound.
The old Cornish name for the bird is Palores, meaning digger, which is thought to be a description of it rooting for invertebrates.
The scientific name (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) means "fire crow" which is likely to be an allusion to its red bill and legs. This possibly also relates to the birds' mischievous reputation during the Tudor and Elizabethan periods for stealing lighted candles or embers and dropping these onto roofs, which were generally thatched in Cornwall at this time.
In the 1800s, many choughs were killed by "sportsmen" and trophy hunters. Also around this time, grazing livestock were moved to inland pastures where they could be more easily managed. The result was that the cliff slopes became overgrown and choughs found it increasingly difficult to find suitable feeding areas. By 1973, the chough had become extinct in Cornwall. In recent years, clifftops have been managed more actively which has included the reintroduction of grazing. Choughs have returned to Cornwall by themselves from colonies in Wales or Ireland.
After several decades of extinction, a pair of choughs settled in 2001 on the Lizard Peninsula. Since then, the birds have successfully bred and been joined by a few more incoming birds, and the population has steadily grown and spread further across Cornwall. Each Cornish chough is fitted with one leg ring in the colours of St Piran's flag and two other colours on the opposite leg to identify them.
If you think you've seen a chough, take a photo if possible and email choughs@cbwps.org.uk to report the sighting. This will help the "Chough Watch" team keep track of the growing population.
During the breeding season (beginning of April to the end of June), chough eggs and chicks are very vulnerable to predators (including dogs) and many young birds die in their first 6 months. You can make a substantial difference to their chances of survival and to increasing Cornwall's chough population by keeping dogs on leads along the coast and also by avoiding naming exact locations if you post photos on social media during this period.
The herring gull is the gull most commonly encountered in Cornwall, with a grey back and red spot on their yellow beak. They live for around 12 years and are highly intelligent birds with strong communication and social learning skills. This has allowed them to evolve strategies to obtain food more easily by stealing it from humans, either when briefly left unattended or by swooping and grabbing from unsuspecting hands.
Whilst their pasty and ice cream stealing antics in coastal resorts might give the impression there are lots around, the coastal herring gull population dropped by about 50% from 1970 to the mid 1980s and the decline has continued with another drop of around 50% up to 2020.
Part of the decline in coastal herring gull populations can be explained by a migration of birds inland to urban areas. Birds have been driven inland in search of food and roosting sites due to declining fish populations and lack of undisturbed coastal nesting sites. In urban areas, streetlights allow gulls to forage by night and there is no longer much competition from red kites, which scavenged the rubbish tips in the Middle Ages.
At the time of writing, a survey of the inland populations is being carried out to determine the relative size of these vs the coastal population and if these are stable. The first datasets from some of the devolved UK Nations suggest that is unlikely to explain the majority of the decline. Since the 1990s, 96% of the population in Northern Ireland died out predominantly from botulism. It's thought that birds seeking food on rubbish tips might be bringing this back to colonies.
The herring gull is an example of a "ring species". In Europe, the lesser black-backed gull and herring gull are distinct species, yet as you circumnavigate the globe, the populations become more similar until they merge in the middle as a single species.
Herring gulls are able to communicate nuances both by altering the frequency and timbre of their calls - conveying, for example, the relative severity of a threat in an alarm call. They also analyse and remember the personality of their neighbours, ignoring more skittish birds but taking action when a more trusted bird raises an alarm.
Thrift is a tough evergreen plant which grows on sea cliffs and consequently it's the county flower of the Scilly Isles. To survive in this environment it needs to be able to withstand drought and salt-laden winds. Its long, thin leaves and hairy flower stems have evolved to minimise water loss.
The name "thrift" has been suggested to arise from the plant's tufted leaves being economical with water in the windy locations where it is found. It's common all along the Cornish coast and in April-June produces pale pink flowers, hence its other common name: "Sea Pink". The plant grows in dense circular mats which together with its covering of pink flowers gives rise to another less common name: "Ladies' Cushions".
Thrift is tolerant of metals such as lead and particularly copper in soil so it is able to colonise coastal mine tips. It has been suggested that the heavy metal tolerance may be partly down to not transporting much dissolved metal up the shoot of the plant (since thrift grows in a desiccating salty environment, there is less water to transport it than in many other plants). However thrift also has mechanisms to sequester metals and excrete them through its roots and leaves.
Thrift is known as a "hyperaccumulator" of copper: it can concentrate copper by over 1000 times more than other neighbouring plants. This makes it potentially useful to clean up contaminated land but this be done over many years. In principle it's even possible to mine for minerals by concentrating them in plants and then extracting them (known as "phytomining"). It's currently far from economical to do so for copper but for rarer high-value metals it may become economical, possibly in conjunction with chemical soil additives to increase bio-availability.
Adders are easily identified by the pretty diamond pattern along their backs. Also known as vipers, these are Britain's only venomous snake. Adders are a protected species, are not aggressive, and generally only bite if trodden on or picked up (unsupervised dogs or children may attempt the latter).
In the rare event of a bite, medication attention should be sought immediately. The smaller body sizes of young children or small dogs means the same amount of venom will have a greater effect in these cases. Although a bite is painful, no-one has died from an adder bite in over 20 years and the highest risk is to those with preexisting conditions or allergies.
On warm days from late April, you may be lucky enough to witness the "dance of the adders" (a pair of adders wrestling). This was once thought to be a mating display, but is actually a larger male attempting to drive away a smaller one.
Unlike many species of snake, adders don't lay eggs but give birth to live young as there isn't enough warmth available during the spring to hatch eggs. It usually takes the female adder two to three years to replenish the energy reserves to be able to breed again.
Victorian naturalists believed that female adders protected the young and would swallow them if they were in danger and regurgitate them later. No evidence has been found for any of this. As far as biologists been able to tell, the young adders are left to fend for themselves after they are born. The offspring often remain close to the parents for a few days before they gradually dissipate so it's possible this was misinterpreted as the parents protecting the young.
The name "adder" arose through a mistake. In mediaeval English, a word for any generic snake was a nadder. Through a process of misunderstanding known as "wrong division", the correct form a nadder became the incorrect an adder. Eventually the usage became restricted from any snake to just the snake also known as the viper.
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.
