Gold, black & grey
COVERACK TO PLYMOUTH
99 MILES (159KM) Huge black boulders brood on Coverack beach, where the Earth spat out chunks of the Moho layer between its crust and mantle as it heaved the Lizard into existence. Look out for serpentine at Kynance, mottled pink and green gneiss at Poltesco, and a glorious jumble of multicoloured rocks on the golden sweep of Kennack Sands. Daphne du Maurier’s Menabilly near Fowey gave her a host of romantic settings, and the thick trees trailing among egrets in Frenchman’s Creek were the perfect screen for Lady Dona’s dalliance with a French pirate. The wide, species-rich River Helford, too, had secret links across the Channel, and tropical gardens on its eastern bank flourish in the mild climate. Over a hundred bird species have been spotted at Falmouth’s Swanpool, also noted for having Britain’s only Trembling Sea Mat.
After the tranquil wooded haven of the Roseland peninsula, huge coastal views accompany sheer wood-topped cliffs and massive Iron Age ramparts defending Dodman Point. Twin blockhouses at Fowey and Polruan protected the deep water between them from maritime marauders, and in the tiny fishing villages between here and Looe there are smugglers’ caves and steps carved into the rocks. Near towering chapel-topped Rame Head the forbidding Tregantle Fort overlooks a long sweep of gritty grey sand at Whitsand: one of a ring of Victorian ‘folly’ forts protecting Plymouth Sound against a French invasion that never happened.
TRY THIS WALK: A breathtaking five-mile smugglers’ walk over the cliffs from Polperro to Looe: a precious habitat for rare and endangered species, with a blaze of wildflowers on the clifftops, breeding birds on the ledges and the possibility of seeing grey seals on the rocks far below. Both villages are a visitor’s paradise, with galleries, bistros and regular buses. ▶