Cornwall
"Keep an eye on that cave opening, they’ve been darting in and out every 35–40 minutes since dawn,” says a muffled west-country accent from behind a turned-up collar and hood, tightly fastened against the brisk on-shore winds. It’s nearly 3pm. Had this Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) volunteer really been standing on a well-chosen spot between the car park and the National Trust booth since dawn? Lizard Point, one of Cornwall’s most famous (and arguably most tacky) tourist spots, seemed an unlikely spot to find one of England’s rarest birds. But, during the past few years, the Lizard has become a Mecca for birdwatchers, after the glossy black Cornish chough, identifiable by its bright-red beak and legs and characteristic aerobatic flight, returned to here after a 50-year absence from England.
It was once believed that the spirit of King Arthur lived on in a chough, and the bird appears on the Cornish coat of arms – two facts that have sealed its status as Cornwall’s favourite bird. Residents of the region revelled in the news that a pair of choughs had successfully bred on the Lizard peninsula in 2001 and again in 2004, when two pairs of choughs raised chicks on the Cornish coast. Today, the total population has swelled to 11 birds.
As the chough’s preferred habitat is rocky coastlines and caves, it comes as no great surprise that the birds have chosen to settle in Cornwall, with its 645 kilometres of coastline. Cornwall’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is unique in that its total area of 958 square kilometres is divided into 12 separate areas. All, with the exception of Bodmin Moor, are located next to the sea, and display some of the UK’s most picturesque coastal scenery.
Cornish essence
The essence of the Cornwall AONB is, of course, defined by the sea. Tiny sheltered villages, once thriving fishing communities, nestle between rugged, weather-beaten headlands. Along the northern coast, spectacular exposed cliff faces contrast with the softer, more tranquil, tree-lined estuaries, sand bars and sheltered creeks of the south, where rare and exotic plants that don’t grow anywhere else in the British Isles thrive. But inland, the exposed landscapes create a sense of wilderness that is somehow reinforced by a lack of trees, curious rock formations and the remnants of past industries. Much of the landscape of Cornwall and West Devon was transformed during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a result of the rapid growth of the copper and tin mining industries.
Its deep underground mines, engine houses, foundries, smallholdings, ports and harbours together represent an age of significant innovation that, during the early 19th century, enabled the region to produce two thirds of the world’s copper. The substantial remains in Cornwall and West Devon were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list last year. “We have 12 different areas, which must have four or five separate landscape types within them,” explains Paul Walton, Cornwall’s AONB partnership manager. “Bodmin Moor, parts of West Penwith and parts of the Lizards are quite similar: open exposed, historic, upland landscape; the stretches along the north hug the coastline and are associated with the sea and seaward views – it’s rugged and remote with some of Cornwall’s highest parts. There’s also the estuarine river valley landscape, with the Helford, Fal and Fowey rivers flowing out of the south coast and the Camel estuary in the north. On the south coast, you have a much softer landscape, where you get extensive, lush gardens such as those at Trelowarren and around Falmouth – sort of Mediterranean gardens.
”In fact, the elements of the area’s flora should, I’m told, technically be described as Lusitanian, rather than Mediterranean, the former denoting flora or fauna characteristically found only in the warm, moist, west-facing coastal regions of Portugal, Spain and France and the west- and southwest-facing coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. In May, the time of my visit, the whole place is literally bursting at the seams, as the seasonal vegetation came back it life. Campion, violets, bluebells and cow parsley create splashes of pink, blue and white against a backdrop of leafy green ferns, grasses and other foliage. Recent spring showers seem to imbue the wooded, sheltered retreats of the Lizard with a deep and satisfying scent of moist, fertile soil, peppered with the distinct hint of wild garlic.
It’s easy to get lost in the tangled network of narrow country lanes while exploring the AONB’s 12 sections. but it’s here that another characteristic and botanically important feature of Cornwall can be seen – Cornish hedges. These aren’t really hedges, but rather plant-covered dry-stone walls, topped with wonderfully tangled wind-sculpted bramble, gorse or heather. Bursting into life at the start of spring, they become a riot of colour, as flowers such as dog’s mercury and wood sorrel bloom. Important wildlife habitats, the hedges are also of archaeological importance as they display a number of different styles, depending on their location and age. An impressive 48,280 kilometres of hedges still criss-cross Cornwall, the earliest dating back 4,000–6,000 years.
It’s these and other unique features that make Cornwall enticing to tourists – five million grockles (the local name for visitors to the West Country) dwarf the resident population of 500,000 on an annual basis. “Despite everybody’s best efforts, they are concentrated between May and August,” says Walton. “But, tourism plays a key role; it’s the largest individual section of the area’s economy, something like a quarter of which is geared towards it.”One of the poorest regions of the UK, Cornwall has only really begun to acknowledge how important the landscape and its protection are to tourism during the past decade. “A survey carried out by the National Trust in 1999 suggested that around 80 per cent of visitors came because of the conserved landscape – that was their prime motivation,” says Walton. “So you can see there the correlation between the importance of the landscape and maintaining that landscape, and the tourism economy.
”And one of the roles of the AONB is to encourage further development in the tourism sector in a sustainable manner. “Over the past ten years, you could say that Cornwall has come of age in its recognition of the economic importance of the landscape and that the principle is sustainable,” says Peter Mansfield, chair of the AONB. One example of this is the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, which aims to promote sustainability throughout the county’s tourism sector by urging businesses to adopt, in the first instance, small measures, such as recycling, reusing water and sourcing local produce.
Cornwall has a long history of tourism, with many artists and writers and poets, including Barbara Hepworth, Daphne Du Maurier and John Betjeman, extolling its virtues and presenting an idyllic picture of it through their work. By the time the rail network opened Great Britain up during the late 1800s, Cornwall’s fate was sealed, and St Michael’s Mount, Lands End, Lizard Point, Kynance Cove, St Ives and Newquay quickly became some of its most popular spots.
Badly kept secret
As I make the steep ascent from the spectacular rugged cliffs, white sand and emerald waters of Kynance Cove, the lowest point of mainland Britain and one of Cornwall’s worst-kept secrets, my eyes are drawn to a tiny black dot, dipping and weaving atop an invisible front of air above the rocky Serpentine outcrops.
Pausing to catch my breath, the unmistakeable bright-red beak, contrasting with the glossy bird’s plumage comes into view – it’s a chough! Why it has chosen to reside in such close proximity to the hordes of tourists who flock here, wasn’t a question to which I could find an answer, even from the RSPB volunteer. Perhaps, it somehow knows how much it’s appreciated by the Cornish.
Local Knowledge: insiders’ tips on Cornwall’s top spots
“I am a big fan of the view from the top of Roughtor on Bodmin Moor. And Hawkers Cove, opposite the Daymer Bay on the Camel Estuary, is absolutely fantastic at virtually any time of year – the exposed sand bar, which goes across the estuary, is like nowhere else. And the area around Botallack and West Penwith, and the Crown Mines and areas around St Just, which are part of the World Heritage site, are pretty special as well.”Paul Walton, Cornwall AONB partnership manager
“I’d go for the landscape of West Penwith running along the coast road from St Ives to St Just. The first half is through the Iron Age agricultural landscape of Zennor, dotted with a few old engine houses. Then you come to the more recent mining landscape of St Just and Cape Cornwall, the only cape in England, which some people call Land’s End. And that’s a landscape for everybody – whatever you like about a landscape, you’ll find it there.”Peter Mansfield, Cornwall AONB partnership chair
“My favourite place has to be Lizard Point. It has everything you need: it’s totally unspoilt, you only have to look out there at the sea – beautiful in all weathers: wind, rain and sun. My second favourite is Kynance Cove, which is also unspoilt. There’s low water, caves exposed; the water is lovely and clear and looks emerald green a lot of the time. And it’s just a 45-minute walk (or five-minute drive) from Lizard Point.”Dave Holmes, National Trust, Lizard Point office
July 2007
It was once believed that the spirit of King Arthur lived on in a chough, and the bird appears on the Cornish coat of arms – two facts that have sealed its status as Cornwall’s favourite bird. Residents of the region revelled in the news that a pair of choughs had successfully bred on the Lizard peninsula in 2001 and again in 2004, when two pairs of choughs raised chicks on the Cornish coast. Today, the total population has swelled to 11 birds.
As the chough’s preferred habitat is rocky coastlines and caves, it comes as no great surprise that the birds have chosen to settle in Cornwall, with its 645 kilometres of coastline. Cornwall’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is unique in that its total area of 958 square kilometres is divided into 12 separate areas. All, with the exception of Bodmin Moor, are located next to the sea, and display some of the UK’s most picturesque coastal scenery.
Cornish essence
The essence of the Cornwall AONB is, of course, defined by the sea. Tiny sheltered villages, once thriving fishing communities, nestle between rugged, weather-beaten headlands. Along the northern coast, spectacular exposed cliff faces contrast with the softer, more tranquil, tree-lined estuaries, sand bars and sheltered creeks of the south, where rare and exotic plants that don’t grow anywhere else in the British Isles thrive. But inland, the exposed landscapes create a sense of wilderness that is somehow reinforced by a lack of trees, curious rock formations and the remnants of past industries. Much of the landscape of Cornwall and West Devon was transformed during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a result of the rapid growth of the copper and tin mining industries.
Its deep underground mines, engine houses, foundries, smallholdings, ports and harbours together represent an age of significant innovation that, during the early 19th century, enabled the region to produce two thirds of the world’s copper. The substantial remains in Cornwall and West Devon were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list last year. “We have 12 different areas, which must have four or five separate landscape types within them,” explains Paul Walton, Cornwall’s AONB partnership manager. “Bodmin Moor, parts of West Penwith and parts of the Lizards are quite similar: open exposed, historic, upland landscape; the stretches along the north hug the coastline and are associated with the sea and seaward views – it’s rugged and remote with some of Cornwall’s highest parts. There’s also the estuarine river valley landscape, with the Helford, Fal and Fowey rivers flowing out of the south coast and the Camel estuary in the north. On the south coast, you have a much softer landscape, where you get extensive, lush gardens such as those at Trelowarren and around Falmouth – sort of Mediterranean gardens.
”In fact, the elements of the area’s flora should, I’m told, technically be described as Lusitanian, rather than Mediterranean, the former denoting flora or fauna characteristically found only in the warm, moist, west-facing coastal regions of Portugal, Spain and France and the west- and southwest-facing coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. In May, the time of my visit, the whole place is literally bursting at the seams, as the seasonal vegetation came back it life. Campion, violets, bluebells and cow parsley create splashes of pink, blue and white against a backdrop of leafy green ferns, grasses and other foliage. Recent spring showers seem to imbue the wooded, sheltered retreats of the Lizard with a deep and satisfying scent of moist, fertile soil, peppered with the distinct hint of wild garlic.
It’s easy to get lost in the tangled network of narrow country lanes while exploring the AONB’s 12 sections. but it’s here that another characteristic and botanically important feature of Cornwall can be seen – Cornish hedges. These aren’t really hedges, but rather plant-covered dry-stone walls, topped with wonderfully tangled wind-sculpted bramble, gorse or heather. Bursting into life at the start of spring, they become a riot of colour, as flowers such as dog’s mercury and wood sorrel bloom. Important wildlife habitats, the hedges are also of archaeological importance as they display a number of different styles, depending on their location and age. An impressive 48,280 kilometres of hedges still criss-cross Cornwall, the earliest dating back 4,000–6,000 years.
It’s these and other unique features that make Cornwall enticing to tourists – five million grockles (the local name for visitors to the West Country) dwarf the resident population of 500,000 on an annual basis. “Despite everybody’s best efforts, they are concentrated between May and August,” says Walton. “But, tourism plays a key role; it’s the largest individual section of the area’s economy, something like a quarter of which is geared towards it.”One of the poorest regions of the UK, Cornwall has only really begun to acknowledge how important the landscape and its protection are to tourism during the past decade. “A survey carried out by the National Trust in 1999 suggested that around 80 per cent of visitors came because of the conserved landscape – that was their prime motivation,” says Walton. “So you can see there the correlation between the importance of the landscape and maintaining that landscape, and the tourism economy.
”And one of the roles of the AONB is to encourage further development in the tourism sector in a sustainable manner. “Over the past ten years, you could say that Cornwall has come of age in its recognition of the economic importance of the landscape and that the principle is sustainable,” says Peter Mansfield, chair of the AONB. One example of this is the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, which aims to promote sustainability throughout the county’s tourism sector by urging businesses to adopt, in the first instance, small measures, such as recycling, reusing water and sourcing local produce.
Cornwall has a long history of tourism, with many artists and writers and poets, including Barbara Hepworth, Daphne Du Maurier and John Betjeman, extolling its virtues and presenting an idyllic picture of it through their work. By the time the rail network opened Great Britain up during the late 1800s, Cornwall’s fate was sealed, and St Michael’s Mount, Lands End, Lizard Point, Kynance Cove, St Ives and Newquay quickly became some of its most popular spots.
Badly kept secret
As I make the steep ascent from the spectacular rugged cliffs, white sand and emerald waters of Kynance Cove, the lowest point of mainland Britain and one of Cornwall’s worst-kept secrets, my eyes are drawn to a tiny black dot, dipping and weaving atop an invisible front of air above the rocky Serpentine outcrops.
Pausing to catch my breath, the unmistakeable bright-red beak, contrasting with the glossy bird’s plumage comes into view – it’s a chough! Why it has chosen to reside in such close proximity to the hordes of tourists who flock here, wasn’t a question to which I could find an answer, even from the RSPB volunteer. Perhaps, it somehow knows how much it’s appreciated by the Cornish.
Local Knowledge: insiders’ tips on Cornwall’s top spots
“I am a big fan of the view from the top of Roughtor on Bodmin Moor. And Hawkers Cove, opposite the Daymer Bay on the Camel Estuary, is absolutely fantastic at virtually any time of year – the exposed sand bar, which goes across the estuary, is like nowhere else. And the area around Botallack and West Penwith, and the Crown Mines and areas around St Just, which are part of the World Heritage site, are pretty special as well.”Paul Walton, Cornwall AONB partnership manager
“I’d go for the landscape of West Penwith running along the coast road from St Ives to St Just. The first half is through the Iron Age agricultural landscape of Zennor, dotted with a few old engine houses. Then you come to the more recent mining landscape of St Just and Cape Cornwall, the only cape in England, which some people call Land’s End. And that’s a landscape for everybody – whatever you like about a landscape, you’ll find it there.”Peter Mansfield, Cornwall AONB partnership chair
“My favourite place has to be Lizard Point. It has everything you need: it’s totally unspoilt, you only have to look out there at the sea – beautiful in all weathers: wind, rain and sun. My second favourite is Kynance Cove, which is also unspoilt. There’s low water, caves exposed; the water is lovely and clear and looks emerald green a lot of the time. And it’s just a 45-minute walk (or five-minute drive) from Lizard Point.”Dave Holmes, National Trust, Lizard Point office
July 2007
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