In 2006, Bryon Linsey and I walked the easternmost section of the South West Coast Path through Dorset from Lyme Regis to Poole. Now, 12 years later, Theresa and I had a go at the westernmost part, around Land’s End in Cornwall. We walked clockwise (the “reverse” direction) in four days from Penzance to St. Ives, and then completed the “loop” on the fifth day by walking St. Michael’s Way pilgrimage route back to St. Michael’s Mount in Marazion. The total distance was about 90 km. Our accommodation, luggage transfers, and occasional taxi rides had all been arranged by Contours Walking Holidays.
From Marazion to Penzance is all on paved promenade, with the beach on your left but railway tracks and some industry on your right, so we gave this part a miss and drove to Penzance, parking our rental car near our final night’s B&B location before setting off on the coast path proper. Most of the walk from Penzance to Mousehole is on sidewalk or paved bicycle path, but after this the path lives up to it’s reputation and becomes much more rough and challenging, with continuous ups and downs over uneven stones and steps. On this first day we walked a mile or so past Mousehole to St. Loy and followed a farm track inland to the Merry Maidens stone circle. Les, from Logan Rock Cars, picked us up there and took us back to our booked B&B in Penzance.
The next day, Les delivered us right down the farm road almost to St. Loy where we resumed our walk, past Penberth Cove, Porth Curno with it’s amazing beaches and the Minack open-air theatre, through Porthgwarra, and around the corner heading north to Land’s End, finishing our walk with a beer at The Old Success Inn in Sennen Cove, followed by an early dinner of fish-and-chips, before trudging up the hill to our B&B.
The gorgeous weather continued on day 3, with not a cloud in the sky. Thankfully there was an ocean breeze because inland, the UK was heading into a heat wave. The walk from Sennen Cove northward passed beautiful Cape Cornwall, once believed to be the most westerly point in the UK before the ordinance survey showed that Land’s End would hold the honour, and be inundated with tourists instead of the much more photogenic and dramatic Cape Cornwall. Next the coast path passed by the “Tin Coast” part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. We walked about a mile past our planned endpoint at Pendeen Watch, hoping to reduce the length of the next day’s walk. We finished up in the tiny village of Morvah, where our B&B host, Andrew, graciously collected us and took us back to our accommodation in Botallack. Dinner was at the Queen’s Arms, just across the street.
The final day on the coast path had us somewhat worried – it is long (22 km) and described as “severe” in the difficulty rating. We had found the “strenuous” rating tough enough! We headed down the overgrown rarely used path from Morvah and struck off to the east, heading for St. Ives. Eight hours of continuous ups and downs, but overall the track was nothing tougher than previous legs. The weather was very warm, but we were carrying about a gallon of Gatorade, and so we successfully made it into St. Ives in the late afternoon after a challenging day of walking, but with a feeling of quiet satisfaction. An England World Cup match, and irritating skateboarder outside our B&B window, and a troublesome cough (Martin) did not make for an early night, and we were pretty shattered after a long hot day.
To return to the south coast of Cornwall, the next day we walked across the peninsula on St. Michael’s Way, a Compostela route related to the Camino de Santiago, which runs from St. Ives to St. Michael’s Mount in Marazion. This was a change from the coastal scenery, but much easier walking with expansive views across the peninsula. We strolled into very warm Marazion for a shady afternoon tea/coffee before being collected by a taxi and returned to our B&B and car in Penzance. That night we had dinner at the 500 year old Dolphin Tavern in Penzance harbor.
After our previous five days walking in the Cotwolds, this South West Coast Path route was quite challenging. The weather was remarkable, and although it was certainly too hot for easy walking, on this tricky terrain this was much preferred to fog or rain!