Ascent
in more prehistory (and even these claims could be challenged), none seems to fold it all together so close.
Just the walk down to the cliff edge involves an encounter with prehistory.
The field boundary walls, some including huge lumps of granite, were built in the Iron Age, possibly the late Bronze Age. The clifftops here are covered with them, and the fields they form – fields that are still being used – stretch for miles along the coast. Huddled amongst are the homes of the people that first laid them out.
When you get beyond Bosigran Castle, a promontory fort from the first millennium BC, the coastal path dips and winds, providing stunning views down into the many inlets, bays and coves. They have sonorous names like Halldrine Cove, Carn Mor Cliff, Porthmeor Bay, Robin’s Rocks and Boswednack Cliff. There are also more early fields, another fort, a medieval chapel (Chapel Jane above Treen Cove), tumbled engine houses, wheel pits, spoil heaps, copper ore washing basins and signs warning of exposed mine shafts.
Once up on the hills, and it’s back in time again, right back, with what is thought to be a Neolithic settlement surviving as low banks and walls around Carn Galver. And should you want to see more of what this lot were up to back then, the hills are covered with enigmatic examples such as Mên-an-tol, the Nine Maidens and Lanyon Quoit. A good excuse to extend this walk, or return another day.
Further information
Maps: OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet 102 (Land’s End)
Transport: Buses from Penzance to Zennor: First Kernow service A1. Details from 0345 6460707 or firstgroup. com/cornwall. Transport for Cornwall service 16A. Details from 0808 196 2632 or transportforcornwall.co.uk
Information: Penzance Visitor Centre (01736 335530) or visitcornwall.com
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