St Keverne was the site of a mediaeval monastery from around AD 600, which would originally have been built of wood. The settlement of St Keverne was first recorded in the 1086 Domesday survey as Lannachebran. The manor included 20 acres of pasture and land for 7 ploughs and was owned by the canons of St Achebran's monastery.
The church is dedicated to St Akevernus (also known as St Kieran) who is said to have founded the monastery. The current church mostly dates from the 15th Century but some of the stonework from a previous church was re-used in its construction. The columns within the nave are constructed from a number of different colours of stone which is thought to have been imported from Brittany. The church was restored in the 1830s and a mural of St Christopher was discovered beneath whitewash.
Broadleaf plantain (also known as greater plantain or common plantain) has rounded leaves. It grows in areas disturbed by humans or livestock such as fields and along footpaths and lanes. It was known as "white man's footprint" by some Native American people as it thrived in disturbed ground surrounding European settlements. The young leaves are edible as a salad green but become tough as they mature.
The stiles in Cornwall that consist of rectangular bars of granite resembling a cattle grid are known as "coffen" (coffin) stiles. These often occur on footpaths leading to churches such as the Zennor Churchway. The mini cattle grids are fairly effective at containing livestock and were significantly easier for coffin-bearers to navigate than stiles crossing walls. They are more frequently found in West Cornwall but there are a few in East Cornwall such as those on either side of Advent Church.
The trees around the field provide good perches for crows.
Studies have shown that crows are capable of self-discipline. If offered one piece of food now or two later, the crows will resist temptation and wait. However if the initial piece of food is a high value item such as sausage, they won't take the risk.
From December until the spring, celandine leaves are quite noticeable along the edge of paths. They have a shape similar to a "spade" in a pack of cards and are patterned with lighter green or silvery markings.
Sycamore timber was traditionally used for milk pails as it does not impart any flavour or colour. It is still used today for kitchenware and is recognisable by the light colour and fine grain.
Gunnera looks like giant rhubarb but the leaves stems are spiky. It tends to favour damp places as quite a lot of water is needed to supply its huge leaves.
The plant has a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria which live between its cells. The cyanobacteria, also known as "blue-green algae", are photosynthetic and also supply the host plant with nitrogen which allows it to colonise poor soils.
Mosses' lack of deep roots mean they need to store their own supply of water during dry periods which is why they are found in shady places that are not dried-out by the sun. This also applies to moss on trees - it rarely grows on the south-facing part of the trunk which can be used as a crude form of compass when navigating.
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
From mid November to January, the plants produce spikes with pale pink flowers. The scent of the flowers resembles marzipan i.e. almond and vanilla. The chemical responsible for the scent (4-methoxybenzaldehyde) has been found to attract pollinators whilst also repelling ants. It is a very similar chemical compound to vanillin (hence the vanilla-like scent).
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
The name of the plant is Greek for "sun direction" because the flowers turn to follow the winter sun.
Red and Roe deer are the two truly native species of the six found in the UK and both have pointy, branching (rugose) antlers. The Red deer is the largest of the species and has a characteristic large white V on its backside whereas the Roe deer just has a small white patch.
The fallow deer was introduced by the Normans and has flat, elk-like (palmate) antlers and an inverted black horseshoe surrounding a white patch on its rear end.
In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, three "exotic" Asian species (munjac, sika and Chinese water deer) were introduced. These all have quite rounded ears whereas the European species all have pointy "elf-like" ears.
Roe deer, Fallow deer and Red deer are all present in Cornwall and the populations of all three species has increased substantially over the past decade, possibly by as much as a factor of ten. There are also a small number of munjac deer, but far fewer than in the rest of England.
The route continues through the gate on the left but beforehand you may want to continue ahead to explore Porthoustock before continuing.
From here, go through the gate and follow the path uphill along the fence and cross straight over the track near the top to reach a kissing gate in the corner of the field.
The settlement of Porthoustock was first recorded around 1250 as Pordeustek and is pronounced "prowstock" by locals. Other than the porth meaning cove or harbour, no-one is quite sure of the origin of the name. The sheltered and steeply-sloping beach makes it a good boat launching location. A lifeboat was therefore stationed here from 1869 until 1942 and the lifeboat house remains, albeit re-purposed. Fish cellars also existed here and at least one of these has been re-purposed into accommodation.
The coast path is routed inland through the fields here due to the quarrying on the coast. One of the old quarries is the site of the Cornish Sea Salt Co.
The Iron Age saltworks on The Lizard inspired the idea for the Cornish Sea Salt Company in 2004 which, after three years of development work, began trading in Jan 2008. The salt is harvested from the sea in a purpose-built building on the Lizard coast. Only a fraction of the salt is extracted from the seawater, which is then allowed to trickle back into the sea through a fault in the rocks, ensuring that the local salinity levels are not greatly disturbed.
In winter, birds have a tough time finding enough food to sustain themselves and keep warm. Flocking offers a number of advantages that eases this pressure. Roosting as a flock means they can huddle together to keep warm (one big object has a larger heat capacity and smaller surface area than lots of little ones so heat is lost more slowly). A flock can also share the work of looking out for predators and spotting food, allowing more time to be spent on feeding. Birds of different species will sometimes even flock together to cooperate.
If flocking offers so many advantages, you may wonder why birds don't do it all year round. During the spring, breeding is all about competition between the birds for mates and nesting sites and here it pays to split up to reduce competition. Also, summer food sources tend to be more spread out (e.g. insects) rather than the dense clumps of seeds and berries found in winter that are better able to feed a flock.
During the 18th Century, a salt tax was introduced in Britain, both on production and on import. Ireland didn't have this tax, so large amounts of rock salt were exported from Cheshire to Ireland to fuel the resulting boom in salt refinement there. Refined salt from Ireland was smuggled back to Britain in sufficient quantities to put the (taxed) sea salt industry into further decline.
The settlement of Trenance was first recorded as a manor in the Domesday survey of 1086 spelt Trenant. The name is the Cornish for "valley farm". In 1086 it had a pasture of 100 acres and arable land for 6 ploughs and was owned by Algar. Prior to the Norman conquest it had been owned by Oswulf.
Where the Domesday survey mentions "land for one plough" this was a measurement of land taxation rather than a measurement of actual land area.
In Norman times and before, ploughing was done with oxen. A single oxen could plough 15 acres in a season so "land for one plough" was loosely based on this. With 8 oxen, around 120 acres could be ploughed in a season which represented enough to support a (manorial) household (a peasant household would get by on a lot less!). The unit of land tax known as a "hide" was based on this (effectively "land for 8 ploughs").
In both cases, the actual area of land for each taxation unit varied with the productivity of the land. The lower income that the land produced, the larger the area a taxable unit covered. More-or-less, they were the Norman version of Council Tax bands.
There is an old radar station along the lane to Porthkerris which was associated with the Torpedo Range at the mouth of the Helford River. Radar aerials were originally located beside the building but have since been removed.
Genetic analysis has revealed that domestic apples originated from wild apples in Kazakstan near the Chinese border. It is thought that the apple was probably the first tree to be domesticated by humans, several thousand years ago. Wild apples grew in the British Isles in Neolithic times but domesticated apples were introduced by the Romans. Over 7500 varieties of apple are now known.
The UK produces nearly two-thirds of all cider in the European Union and by volume of alcohol, the excise duty on cider is lower than any other drink. Cider has had a huge resurgence in popularity over the last few years and three in five adults now drink it.
Cider is part of the Westcountry heritage and this includes a tradition dating back to the early Middle Ages known as the "Orchard Wassail" where an offering of bread and cider was made to the apple trees and incantations were recited to promote a good harvest.
Cornish ciders beginning to achieve popularity outside the county include "Cornish Rattler" from Healey's cider farm (distributed by St Austell Ales) and "Orchard Cornish" cider (a joint venture between Cornish Orchards and Sharp's Brewery). In the interests of research, both have been extensively tested and deemed very refreshing and conducive to the recital of incantations.
Fat Apples Café is on the site of Porthallow Vineyard which was the most southerly in Britain. This made it into the national press in 1998 after the owner at the time was prosecuted by Trading Standards. A Trading Standards inspector became suspicious when he came across a 1992 vintage - the year that the vines were cut back. According to the newspaper reports, a site visit revealed that "estate produced and bottled" wine was made from wine kits and cider production involved soaking off the labels of shop-bought cider and re-labelling it.
The settlement here, known as Park-an-Tidno, dates from mediaeval times and was recorded in 1419 as Parksyntynnyowe. It is thought to have originally been based on the Cornish word fenten, meaning "spring" or "well", plus the more recognisable park, meaning "field". -yow was a common plural ending in the Celtic language. The gist would have been something like "Springfields".
Porthallow is now probably best known for being the midpoint of the South West Coast Path.
The South West Coast Path stretches for 630 miles from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset. It was created as a route between lighthouses for use by the Coastguard so they could overlook the bays and coves to catch smugglers.
The walk continues on the footpath to the left, but first you may wish to follow the road down to Porthallow beach and then return here to continue the walk.
Follow the path to a stile next to a gate. Cross the stile and follow the path to emerge into a field.
As the name of the pub - the Five Pilchards - suggests, the port flourished during the heyday of pilchard fishing and a number of the buildings are relics of this. During mediaeval times, it was a major fishery, initially owned by an Abbey, and the pilchard fishery continued into Victorian times. In more recent times, Porthallow was largely owned by the Trelowarren Estate and the beach was still owned by the estate until the 1970s when it was purchased by the village. The place name is pronounced locally as "pralla".
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 Old English name for the blackbird was osle and up to the 17th Century this survived as in alternative names for the blackbird ranging from ouzel to woosel. One of these is used in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare: "The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill".
To make elderflower cordial, remove the bitter stems from about a 20 flower heads and soak overnight in 1 litre of water containing the juice of 2 lemons. Strain the liquid and dissolve around 600g sugar to make a sweet cordial. To make dissolving the sugar easier, you can pre-dissolve the sugar in the water in advance by boiling the water and allowing it to cool before adding the elderflowers although you lose some of your sugar on the discarded elderflowers that way. Dilute with water or sparkling water to serve. It can be frozen for use at other times of the year.
Researchers at the University of Sydney studying influenza found that the pigments in elderberries have antiviral properties. A small effect was found in inhibiting a virus from attacking a cell but a more significant effect was found in preventing viruses from propagating once they had infected a cell. The elderberry chemicals were also found to stimulate the cell's own chemical messaging system used to trigger an immune response.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a surge in demand for elderberry-derived herbal remedies. However, there are concerns that compounds in elderberry could have the potential to trigger an immune over-reaction (known as a "cytokine storm") seen in some severe COVID-19 infections.
The settlement of Tregaminion dates from mediaeval times and was first recorded in around 1250 as Trecheminion. The name is thought to be based on the Cornish word kemmyn meaning "common" or "commoner", but could also be from kemmynn meaning "legacy" or "inheritance".
A neolithic axe made of the hard metamorphic rock greenstone was found here around 1968 and was recorded as being given to the Helston museum in 1971.
Electric fences are typically powered from a low voltage source such as a car battery which charges a capacitor to release a periodic pulse of high voltage electricity. This is often audible as a quiet "crack" which is a good indicator that a fence is powered. As with the high-voltage shock caused by static electricity, the current is not high enough to cause serious injury but touching an electric fence is nevertheless unpleasant. If you are answering the call of nature in the vicinity of an electric fence, be mindful of the conductivity of electrolyte solutions!
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
A beef cow produces around 30kg of dung per day. As dairy cows need to eat more to produce milk, they also produce roughly double the amount of dung which adds up to around 20 tonnes per year.
Cow dung is high in nitrogen compounds which makes it a useful fertiliser but depending how this is spread on the fields (e.g. sprayed as a liquid), harmful ammonia can be released into the air and run into watercourses. Large tanks of slurry can also decay anaerobically releasing methane so storage mechanisms are being re-examined in light of climate change.
The association of good luck with four-leafed clover was first recorded in Victorian times (1860s-1870s) so may be a relatively recent invention. Perhaps something that occupied children for hours was seen as good luck in Victorian times!
In summer, swallows can sometimes be seen catching insects in the fields.
The streamers on swallows tails serve an aerodynamic function, assisting tight turns to catch insects. Experiments with sand martins found that they could be "pimped-up" by adding artificial streamers to their tails which afforded them increased manoeuvrability in a flight maze. The suggestion for why swallows have evolved streamers and not sand martins is partly the speedier insects that swallows need to catch and also that sand martins live in burrows and this would risk breaking off one streamer, leading to unbalanced flight.
Large amounts of calcium are needed when birds lay eggs to create the eggshells. Female birds store calcium by growing a special type of leg bone which has a high density of calcium. Similar calcium storage leg bones have been found in female dinosaur species only distantly related to birds which indicates this was a general approach used by dinosaurs.
A project to analyse blackberries picked from busy urban roadsides vs quiet rural lanes found that there was a slightly elevated level of lead in the blackberries from busy roadsides which is thought to have accumulated in the soil when leaded fuel was in common use. Surprisingly, commercial blackberries from supermarkets also showed higher levels of lead than the wild blackberries from rural lanes.
Goosegrass produces lots of small white flowers in summer which are quite noticeable in hedgerows, particularly in July. The sticky seeds then form in late summer - early autumn. The seeds germinate immediately so the seedlings can get started before the winter. They then overwinter as small (frost-resistant) plants, ready for a growth spurt in April once the weather warms up.
Burdock flowers in July and August with pink flowers which look a little like thistle flowers. However burdock's soft, broad, foxglove-like leaves make it easy to distinguish.
The "bur" in the name of the plant (and also the word for the rough edges on metal) comes from the Viking word for "bristle". The "dock" is a reference to the large leaves. It was known as butterdock in East Cornwall dialect, perhaps because the leaves were used to wrap butter as with butterbur leaves.
Burdock seeds contain small hooks which attach to passing animals or clothing. After a walk in the woods in 1941 that was followed by the lengthy process of removing these from clothing and dogs, a Swiss engineer realised that there was scope to apply this to something useful. The product inspired by nature (aka "biomimicry") was described as "the zipperless zipper". Today is it better known by the name of company he founded based on the French words for velvet (velour) and hook (crochet): Velcro.
The northeastern area of The Lizard, around the Helford creeks has been known for at least 1000 years as the Meneage, pronounced "M'neeg". The name means "land of the monks" and it is thought that after the Romans departed, the area was a confederacy of small Celtic monasteries settled by missionaries from Brittany.
Ferns produce 2 different types of leaf (although they often look quite similar). The normal leaves are used for photosynthesis of sugars just like in other plants. Ferns also produce a special kind of spore-bearing leaf which can often be identified from the dots on the underside. In hart's tongue ferns, these are really obvious.
The St Keverne parish has one of the densest distribution of place names beginning with "Tre-" anywhere in Cornwall, indicating heavy settlement during the Dark Ages. Around St Keverne itself, these places are thought to be part of a monastic estate. During this period, there were strong links with the Celtic people of Brittany and this may explain the unusual stone within St Keverne church which is thought to have been imported from Brittany.
The clapper footbridge over the river and the remains of a weir and sluice gate on the stream are thought to possibly date from as far back as mediaeval times. The path is known as Well Lane and is thought to have been the location of a mediaeval Holy Well recorded in 1260 as Funten Keran and 1280 as Funten Kevan. It was later described as a disused pump erected on a foundation of old stones.
The Three Tuns Hotel dates back to at least the mid 1400s, although the physical structure has been replaced since the first building. It is said to take its name from an incident in 1467 where the local vicar was found in the building with three huge casks (tuns) of wine or brandy, "obtained" from a French wreck. Each tun held around 250 gallons, so in total this would have been the equivalent of four and a half thousand bottles.
Like its domesticated relatives, wild garlic grows from a bulb. To distinguish it from other wild plants from the onion/garlic family (such as the three-cornered leek), the species sometimes just called "wild garlic" (Allium ursinum) is often known by the name ramsons or broad-leaf garlic. The scientific name (meaning bear leek) is because the bulbs are thought to be a favourite food of brown bears on the European mainland.
Unlike their more versatile narrow-leaved cousins the three-cornered leeks, ramsons grow mainly in shady places such as woodland. Their broad leaves are solar panels that have evolved to capture the weak winter light early in the year before the trees are in leaf. They are an indicator that woodland is ancient and has provided a shady environment over a long period to colonise.
Despite the pungent smell, the leaves of wild garlic are quite delicate in flavour so can be used quite large quantities in cooking or more sparingly within salads. They are at their most fiery early in the season. As well as a garlic flavour, the leaves have a slight (though not excessive) bitter note which can be balanced against sweet flavours (e.g. tomato or roasted pepper) or salty flavours like bacon to cut through a rich sauce.
Wild garlic is best harvested in early spring before it flowers and the leaves start to die off. Unlike domestic garlic, the leaves are generally used rather than the bulb, which is very small. Note that there are some lilies that look very similar and are poisonous! If it doesn't smell strongly of garlic/onions, then it's not wild garlic and should be avoided. A schoolboy error is to rub the leaves between fingers where the smell lingers so a subsequent poisonous lily leaf could be misidentified.
Wild garlic can be preserved as a frozen paste for use as a cooking ingredient throughout the year. Simply whizz up roughly chopped leaves in a food processor with enough olive oil to make a fairly thick paste and then freeze this in an ice cube tray (or slightly larger silicone moulds if you have them). Standard cooking olive oil will do for this (it's a waste to use extra-virgin as the powerful garlic will mask its flavour). Turn out the frozen blocks into a bag and keep in the freezer. They can then be used as garlic "stock cubes", added just before the end of cooking.
Wild garlic has been found in settlements dating as far back as the neolithic period which given its springtime abundance and aroma is not that surprising. Its culinary use was eventually overtaken by domesticated garlic which first arrived with Mediterranean traders and had the advantage that the bulbs could be stored for relatively long periods.
If cows eat wild garlic, this flavours their milk. Whilst this is definitely not what's wanted for tea or cornflakes, the butter made from it is more useful. This means of producing garlic butter became popular in Switzerland in the 19th Century.
All plants in the onion family are poisonous to dogs including wild garlic. This is one of the reasons that feeding dogs human foods (many of which contain onion such as gravy powder) is not good for them. Garlic is extremely toxic to dogs and cats and the consumption of even a small amount can lead to severe poisoning. Keep dogs away from wild garlic and wash their paws if they come into contact with it.
You can make impressively green pasta with wild garlic and the garlic flavour goes well with most pasta sauces. Whizz up some wild garlic leaves with olive oil to make a thick paste (or retrieve some of this from the freezer and zap in the microwave to defrost). Whisk an egg and add roughly the same amount of your wild garlic paste as the egg. Now keep adding plain flour until you reach a stiff dough (stiffer than bread dough). Roll out fairly (but not excessively) thin keeping it coated with plenty of flour to stop it sticking. Roll it up into a Swiss roll and then cut at 1cm intervals with a sharp knife. Unroll all the strips into a floured surface first and then quickly drop them into boiling water. It will be done in just a minute or 2 (as soon as it floats) so get the strips in at the same time and have your pasta sauce made and ready to go before you cook the pasta.
In a small food processor, whizz approx 20g of Italian-style hard cheese (Parmesan or Pecorino). Optionally whizz in about the same amount of any toasted nuts (nice but not vital). Next whizz in 50g of wild garlic leaves. You can also add 10g lemon balm leaves if you have it growing in your garden. Add zest of a lemon, juice of half the lemon and whizz in a couple of glugs of olive oil to the desired consistency. Finally whizz in salt and pepper to taste.
Make your own super-quick fresh pasta with 200g plain flour, 4g salt, 1 egg and enough water to form a smooth dough. Use a good dusting of flour and roll out thin. Dust again, roll up into a Swiss roll and cut across at 1cm intervals to form spirals. Unravel each and drop the squiggles into boiling water. Done when it floats (about 2 min).
Some estimates suggest the UK has up to half of the world's total bluebell population; nowhere else in the world do they grow in such abundance. However, the poor bluebell faces a number of threats including climate change and hybridisation from garden plants. In the past, there has also been large-scale unsustainable removal of bulbs for sale although it is now a criminal offence to remove the bulbs of wild bluebells with a fine up to £5,000 per bulb!
During periods of cold weather, spring flowers, such as bluebells, have already started the process of growth by preparing leaves and flowers in underground bulbs during summer and autumn. They are then able to grow in the cold of winter, or early spring, by using these resources stored in their bulb. Once they have flowered, the leaves die off and the cycle begins again.
Other species (such as cow parsley or dandelions) require warm weather before they are able to germinate and grow. With the warmer springs induced by climate change, bluebells lose their "early start" advantage, and can be out-competed.
Because bluebells spread very slowly, they're considered to be an indicator of ancient woodland sites. In areas where trees are not very old, the fact there are bluebells around can indicate that there has been a wood on a site for a very long time. Even if there are no trees there at all, bluebells tell us that there was woodland there some time in the past. The bluebells along the coast are a relic of the gnarled oak woodland that used to grow here before it was cleared for grazing. There is still a patch of the ancient oak woodland left along the coast at Dizzard.
Some plant nutrients such as phosphorus tend to be more abundant near the surface of the soil where decaying organic matter collects. Bluebell seedlings start life at the surface so these are OK but as bluebell plants mature and send their roots deeper into the soil to avoid winter frosts, they have a phosphorus problem. They have solved this by partnering with a fungus that extends from their root cells, drawing in minerals from the soil in return for some carbohydrates from the plant.
Bluebells are extremely poisonous, containing a number of biologically-active compounds and were used (probably with varying success) in mediaeval medicine. The sap was used as a glue for book-binding as its toxicity repelled insects. It was also used to attach the fletchings onto arrows.
In Elizabethan times, starch made from the bulbs was used to stiffen collars and cuffs in clothing. The ruffs that were highly fashionable at the time would have needed a lot of starch to prevent them flopping. The toxins in bluebell sap might also have had the desirable property of preventing the starch encouraging the formation of mould.
In folklore, the bluebell is a symbol of constancy, presumably based on the fact that they flower in the same place every year. It was said that anyone who wears a bluebell is compelled to tell the truth. This could be the origin of the "…something blue…" that a bride should wear on her wedding day.
According to folklore, it's unlucky to bring bluebells into a house and also unlucky to walk through bluebells as it was thought that the little bells would ring and summon fairies and goblins.
In Old Cornish, both bluebells and marigolds were known as lesengoc which translates to "flower of the cuckoo". In Modern Cornish, the marigold has remained more-or-less the same but the bluebell has been changed to bleujenn an gog ("plant of the cuckoo"). The association between bluebells and cuckoos exists in Welsh ("bells of the cuckoo") and Gaelic ("cuckoo's shoe"), and in some English folk names such as Cuckoo's Boots and Cuckoo Stockings. It is thought that the association is due to the time that bluebells flower coinciding with the time that the call of the cuckoo is first heard.
Bluebells are also known by folk names based on their shape including Lady’s Nightcap and Witches’ Thimbles.
Other common names for the bluebell include "wild hyacinth" and "wood hyacinth" as they are related to the hyacinth family. Their Genus name Hyacinthoides also means "hyacinth-like".
When photographing bluebells, the flowers that look blue to your eye can end up looking purple in photos.
The first thing to check is that your camera isn't on auto white balance as the large amount of blue will cause the camera to shift the white balance towards reds to try to compensate.
Another thing to watch out for is that the camera's light metering will often over-expose the blue slightly to get a reasonable amount of red and green light and the "lost blue" can change the balance of the colours. You can get around this by deliberately under-exposing the photo (and checking there is no clipping if your camera has a histogram display) and then brightening it afterwards with editing software.
Bluebells are very vulnerable to trampling. The reason for this is that when their leaves emerge in the early part of the year, they are powered by the stored sugars in their bulbs. Sunlight is very limited at this time of the year and even more so in the shady places where they grow. In order to survive, they then need to photosynthesise flat-out to store enough starch in the bulb for next year's growth. If a bluebell’s leaves are crushed, it cannot photosynthesise and and doesn't have enough reserves left in its bulb to grow new ones. It's therefore important to stick to footpaths in bluebell woodland and best to take photos with a zoom lens from there as wandering around in the bluebells to take photos will inadvertently kill them.
A rare genetic mutation occurs in bluebells which results in about 1 bluebell in 10,000 being white rather than blue.
Three-cornered leeks - which have white bell-shaped flowers and are very common - are often misidentified as "white bluebells". The easiest way to tell them apart is that 3-cornered leeks smell strongly of onion. Their flower stems are also triangular (hence the name).
The early purple orchid gets its common name from its spring flowering time - it appears at a similar time to bluebells although it lasts a bit longer. It has a Latin name meaning "virile" which is in keeping with the word "orchid" coming from the Greek word for testicle (on account of the shape of the tuber).
Early purple orchid is the con-man of the plant kingdom, with brilliant purple flowers resembling those of other nectar-rich orchids. When the insects arrive and push through the pollen to investigate the promising flowers, they discover that the flowers contain no nectar.
In most of the UK, thatch was the only roofing material available to the bulk of the population until Victorian times when slate became more widely available. At this point, thatch became regarded as a mark of poverty and therefore socially undesirable. In Cornwall, the transition from thatch to slate began earlier due to the local availability of roofing slate, particularly from Delabole.
During the 20th Century, availability of good quality thatching straw declined after the introduction of the combine harvester and the release of short-stemmed wheat varieties. In 1964, heavy fines were introduced for growing an unregulated variety of wheat and all the traditional, tall-stemmed varieties that were used for thatching became illegal.
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.
Compared to many native trees, the beech colonised Great Britain relatively recently, after the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago. Beech trees have a shallow root system and are therefore often found in areas where water is plentiful such as near rivers. In the 17th and 18th Centuries, tall, stately beech trees were very fashionable in the estates of wealthy landowners and many mature beech woodlands today are the result of 18th Century parkland landscaping projects.
Beech trees can live up to 400 years but the normal range is 150-250 years. Beech trees respond well to pruning and the lifetime of the tree is extended when the tree is pollarded. This was once a common practice and involves cutting all the stems back to a height of about 6ft during the winter when the tree is dormant. The 6ft starting point kept the fresh new growth out of the range of grazing animals. When allowed to grow to full size, a beech tree can reach 80ft tall with a trunk diameter of around 3ft.
The word "beech" is thought to have the same origins as "book" as beech (most probably the bark) was used as a writing material in which to carve runes by Germanic societies before the development of paper. This is still apparent in modern German where the word for "book" is buch and "beech tree" is buche.
The fruit of the beech tree is known as "mast" or, less cryptically, "beechnuts" and these are not produced until the tree is 40-60 years old. The small triangular nuts are encased in spiky husks which split and drop from the trees from late August to early October. The kernels of these are edible and are similar to hazelnuts. They were once used as a source of flour, which was ground after the tannins had been leached out by soaking them in water. If you find them too bitter, you might want to try this trick, although toasting them in a hot pan is also a good option.
Young beech leaves can be used as a salad vegetable, which are described as being similar to a mild cabbage, though much softer in texture. Older leaves are a bit chewy, as you'd expect.
Beech bark is very delicate and does not heal easily. Consequently some graffiti carved in beech trees is still present from more than a century ago. This is a practice that should be strongly discouraged as it permanently weakens the tree, making attack by insects more likely which can prematurely end its life.
Beechwood ageing is used in the production of Budweiser beer but beech is not the source of flavour. In fact beechwood has a fairly neutral flavour and in the brewing process it is pretreated with baking soda to remove even this. The relatively inert strips of wood are then added to the fermentation vessel where they increase the surface area available for yeast. It is the contact with yeast that produces the flavour in the beer, not the beech itself.
Beechnuts can be used very effectively as a thrifty alternative to pine kernels to make pesto. Collect one trouser pocketful of beechnuts. Shell them over a large cup of tea with a friend, toast the kernels over a medium heat in a dry pan, then grind with a pestle and mortar (surprisingly easy once toasted). Chop 4 sprigs of basil each about the size of your hand - roughly half a supermarket pack. Add to this a finely chopped small clove of garlic and a good pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then shave (with a peeler) or grate a lump about the size of the end of your thumb of some hard salty cheese such as Pecorino or Parmesan (a supermarket basic range imitation will do fine). Finally add a good slug of extra virgin olive oil and it's time to say "proper job". It makes a ramekin full which doesn't seem a lot but it is so packed with flavour that it goes a surprisingly long way.
Both navelwort's Latin name and common name are based on its resemblance to a belly button. Other common names include wall pennywort and penny pies due to the shape and size resembling an (old) penny.
The succulent leaves of navelwort can be eaten and used in a salad. Older leaves become more bitter so the younger leaves are recommended. The crunchy stems can be added at the last minute to a stir-fry as an alternative to beansprouts. Care should be taken not to pull roots out of a wall when breaking off leaves.
Navelwort is a member of the stonecrop family which are able to survive in barren locations by storing water in their fleshy leaves. In dry conditions, the plant takes emergency measures to conserve water, producing fewer green chloroplasts (so it goes red) and loses it succulent fleshiness. Leaves with red tinges are therefore not the ones to forage.
Navelwort produces flower spikes with small green bells from June to September. When the flower spike is first forming, it is a rather beautiful structure and is a perfect subject for macro photography.
Quarrying of the coast between Porthoustock and Porthkerris started in 1896 to extract the hard schist and gabbro rock to make gravel for road building. Remnants of the workings include engine houses, bunkers where the stone was graded, the bed of a tramway system with inclines to the quarries, and the large quay at Batty's Point dominating the beach at Porthoustock. The quay was built around the early 1900s (hence it is made of rather unattractive concrete), was serviced by the tramway and contains four large chutes used to load the stone into waiting vessels.
The settlement of Porthkerris was first recorded in 1296 as Porthkersis. As well as the Cornish word porth for "cove", it is thought that the name might be based on the word cors meaning "reeds".
During World War 2, a decoy site was constructed at Nare Point which was built by Ealing Film Studios and manned from a bunker above Men-Aver beach. A sister site existed on Nare Head on the other side of Falmouth Bay, so whichever direction bombers approached from, they could be intercepted before they reached Falmouth. A mark in the grass alongside the coast path is the remains of a fake railway with red and green lights on posts to simulate signals. The site consisted of a range of fire-making devices that were designed to emulate a town that was in blackout where bombs had hit their targets. These included exploding sand bags, tanks with tar and 15 foot long fire-trays which could be filled with different mixtures to emulate the effect of a hit on a ship or a train. During Falmouth's most destructive bombing raid of 1944, the decoy site managed to lure 9 heavy bombs away from Falmouth.
Tregarne mill is thought to have been part of the Boskenvoe manor and there are references to records from the 17th Century onward. The mill building survives with machinery, leat and wheelpit and is Grade II listed.
Scarecrow festivals were traditional in Derbyshire but were first imported into southern England in 1990 in the Wiltshire village of Urchfont. Since then many villages have started annual festivals, often with impressively elaborate and amusing scarecrows.
Porthallow beach is a pebble beach and there is a beach at all states of the tide. Along the right-hand side of the beach there are larger rocks and a rock platform is exposed at low tide. A rock platform also lies under the cliffs along the left side of the beach. The beach faces east away from prevailing winds so it is quite sheltered. Consequently the pebbles towards the low-water line can become quite weedy.
The beach is used to launch boats. Due to the rocks either side there's a reasonably narrow channel where they can launch and land which is something to be mindful of if swimming here.
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.