St Ives to Pendeen Watch

18 September 2009 - St Ives to Pendeen Watch

Distance - 13.1 miles
Weather - Sunny
We stayed at - The Old Count House, Boscawell Downs, Pendeen, Penzance, Cornwall, TR19 7ED Cost - £60.00

We left St Ives, taking with us some lovely freshly cooked pasties, which we obtained from a shop on the sea front. The way out of the town led us past all the usual seaside amenities, toilets, putting green and bowling green. We were soon away from the crowds and up to a muddy bit of track on the clifftop. A little further along there was a nature trail that had been set out by the owners of Trevalgan Holiday Farm. We had fun looking out for some of the items they described on their signs! The path also took us past a fake stone circle called the Merry Harvesters. I wasn't really sure what this was meant to add, as Cornwall has a wealth of authentic megalithic sites, all within an easy car ride.

Later on, we stopped on the bit of coast path that overlooked The Carracks. A group of small islands, just offshore. The name comes from the Cornish word kerrek meaning rocks, which seemed a fair enough description. The largest of these islands is sometimes called Seal Island and we had a squint through Alistair's binoculars to see if we could see any of the Atlantic grey seals that live there and luckily managed to spot some. We also watched a fishing boat full of tourists sailing round the islands, who were interested in doing exactly the same thing. The beaches along this part of the SWCP are really lovely, the small stones are a beautiful grey-blue with interestingly shaped larger blocks of grey-brown stone on top.

At Zennor Head we had to divert inland, as the coast path had been washed away by recent floods. It added a bit onto our journey, but meant we could stop off at the pub for some lunch and watch the brewery lorry try to turn round on a very narrow road, nearly taking out a tree as he did so. After our entertainment, we took the route back to the coast path, walking past some of the devastation that the flood had caused.

A bit further on we came to Portmeor Cove. The path was very rugged here, full of boulders and jumbled rocks. We passed Chair Cairn sitting at the very top and later made our way on to some stepping stones across a waterfall-filled stream above Portheras Cove. The way across the stream had only just re-opened and there was still clear evidence of the erosion caused by heavy rains. A little later we passed by the lighthouse at Pendeen Watch. There wasn't any accommodation here and so we had to head inland to the village of Lower Boscaswell, where there were a couple of guest houses and pubs.

After checking into our guest house we headed off to the pub for some tea and were delighted to come across the bloke we had been following and overtaking on the coast path for the last week. We invited him to sit at our table and had a great evening discussing all things SWCP related. He was staying at the other guest house, so we bade him a fond farewell and enjoyable trip, as this was our last night on the coast path.