Great South West Walk

Thursday August 23

Section 36. HAYLE TO PENDEEN WATCH. Miles:19.5. Grading: Moderate

Start time and location
Could you please report for registration outside Hayle Library at 8am.
The walk will commence at 8.30am.

Parking
Plenty of parking avaialble at start points.

Bus Services
Services run between Hayle and St Ives, St Ives and Zennor – please see our current Annual Guide for details. Confirmation of all buses can be obtained from traveline on 0870 608 2608 www.traveline.org.uk

Trains
Hayle is on the Penzance to Paddington main line, so you can reach the rest of the country from here. St Erth, for all stations to St Ives (Lelant Saltings, Lelant, Carbis Bay and St Ives) is also on the main line this branch line is one of the most spectacular in the country. For more information, please telephone National Rail
Enquiries on 08457 484950.

Maps
Ordnance Survey Landranger series (scale 1:50,000) Number 203, Land's End and The Lizard.
Ordnance Survey Explorer series (scale 1:25,000) Number 102, Land's End, Penzance and St Ives

General Information
Hayle: accommodation, shops (including chemists), pubs, restaurants, cafés, car park, toilets, and public telephones.
Lelant: accommodation, shops, pubs, restaurants, cafés, car park, toilets, and public telephones.
Carbis Bay: accommodation, pubs, car park, public telephone and toilets.
St Ives: accommodation, shops (including chemists), pubs, restaurants, cafés, car park, toilets, and public telephones.
Zennor: limited accommodation, pub and car park.
Treen: limited accommodation, hotel/pub and car park.
Rosemergy (Bosigran): car park.
Pendeen Watch: car park.
Pendeen: limited accommodation, pub, car park, general shop.

TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE
St Ives, The Guildhall, Street an Pol, St Ives, TR26 2DT. Tel: 01736 796297,
fax: 01736 798309.

The Route
IMPORTANT: Do not leave St Ives without taking great thought about accommodation and refreshment. The earliest chance of sleeping is Zennor which has very little accommodation and it gets thinner beyond that. Refreshment is a problem even in high summer because after St Ives there is not another tea garden, café, snack bar or anything until Cape Cornwall, some 20 miles (32 km) away, and that is only open irregularly.

The path from St Ives is correctly graded as severe. There is plenty of ascent and descent and as a lot of it is granite country much of the path is rock strewn and it will surely take you longer than you expect. Furthermore, in wet weather there are some places which are boggy to say the least.

That is all the negative side; on the plus side there is the fact that the views are
superb; it is a wonderful piece of walking if you have given yourself enough time to enjoy it.

The path from Zennor presents hard walking and is also considered severe by this Association. However, it can truly be called magnificent coastal walking. Again, do not leave Zennor unprepared as you could become quite hungry. Refreshments are only available by turning inland to the Gurnard's Head Hotel at Treen.

HAYLE

Hayle has always been a working place based on its priceless asset on this coast - a safe and commodious harbour. Although originally just a port it grew to be an important industrial town as well. Across the floating bridge, the part of the town on the left is called Copperhouse and towards the viaduct it becomes Foundry. These names are both reminders of the busy days of ore smelting in Hayle.

HAYLE TO ST IVES
Annual Guide Section 28 (5.6 miles – 9.0 km) Grading: Moderate

You need not follow the road under the viaduct, but can turn right to pass along its seaward side. The path now officially proceeds along the road starting as Carnsew Road all the way to Lelant’s main street, leaving it there on a right angled bend to go forward to Lelant Church. However, walkers can do better than that as is described later below.

The builders' merchants on the right just after the viaduct is the site of Harvey's
engineering works. This was the firm that really brought fame and fortune to Hayle. They started at the end of the 18th century and steadily grew in importance until it
became the largest engineering works of its kind in the whole south west of England. Their main business was mine machinery and their speciality pumps. They had
considerable export trade, including the supply of irrigating machinery to Egypt and pumps to the Dutch who had been foremost experts in this field for many years. The decline in mining affected Harvey's business and they diversified into ship building. They launched the largest ship ever built in Cornwall, the SS Ramleh, at 3,800 tons.

In 1884 Florence Nightingale Graham was born in Hayle, but the true name of her birth probably means little to anyone. At the end of a life spent in building up a worldwide beauty business, and incidentally making a fortune of five million, she was much better known by her trade name of Elizabeth Arden.

Your route out of Hayle is the B3301 along Carnsew Road, which is known as the Causeway further along. You bear right off the Causeway at Griggs Quay where sailing vessels used to come to unload. Further along on the left is the one-time blacksmith's forge; Bob Fitzsimmons, the only European to win three world boxing titles, was an apprentice here.
The best Cornwall County Council can offer is a route along that road to the busy A3074 where you turn right.

Our suggestion is slightly better. After passing under the bridge, turn right – it is signed St Ives Park and Ride. When you arrive at a block of toilets make for a road on your left in front of the board showing car park charges. Follow the road passing Lelant railway station all the way to Lelant Church.

Note the gate posts close to the church tower - they are built with blocks from foundry waste, or slag, evidence of Hayle's industrial past. In the church is a slate monument to the Praed family, one of whom gave his name to Praed Street outside Paddington Station in London. It is a long journey from Praed Street to Lelant Church in more ways than just distance and those Cornish people in London who know the origin of the street's name will be the more homesick.

After the church continue ahead on the same line to go across a golf course and under the railway again. Immediately turn left proceeding along the seaward side of the railway. The path narrows and becomes sinuous but stay with it.

Just before Carrack Gladden where you are close to the sea there are
several paths going down to the beach. If the tide is well out you can go down and save yourself several ups and downs by walking along the beach to Carbis Bay. If you stay on the path you come up alongside a pedestrian railway crossing and then bear right. On the descent avoid the two beach paths on your right.

As you round the headland of Carrack Gladden look up left towards the skyline: the sharp obelisk is the 50 foot (15 m) high Knill monument, which was erected by John Knill, collector of customs and one-time mayor of St Ives. He intended to be buried there but owing to difficulties over consecration, was not. He is remembered today because he left a bequest to provide for an odd ceremony on St James' Day, the 25th July, every fifth year. Ten girls dance around the Monument to music played by a fiddler, and two widows must attend. The ceremony takes place in the second and
seventh year of each decade; therefore if you wish, you can time your walk to be there in time to see the next ceremony!

About 200 yards (183 m) before Carbis Bay there is another opportunity to go down to the beach and save yourself one last hill. If you still stay with the path, you go up to join a road and turn right down this. Circle round on the inland side of the café complex to leave Carbis Bay on a tarmac path above the beach but seaward of the hotel.

Ascend, crossing a railway footbridge then keep ahead avoiding the signed path on the left. Continue along ignoring the ‘Private road - pedestrians only’ sign on the right. The path becomes a minor road, and where there is
another private road on your right, go ahead. Cross the railway again on a more substantial old fashioned bridge. Here you bear right to go downhill. This brings you to Porthminster Café and then you can walk either side of the little park, continuing along below the railway.

You will have passed a white shelter on your left. Look for the plaque that tells you it is the Baulking House used in the days of pilchard fishing. Hain walk is so called after a ship-owning family of St Ives who grew to fame and fortune.

ST IVES

The name of St Ives itself originated in a St Ia who was reputed to be both an Irish princess and a missionary. In early times St Ives was less important than Lelant which had the parish church. A special papal bull was issued in 1410 by Pope Alexander the Fifth to license a chapel in St Ives. The town has a long and, at times,
turbulent, history. There is, for instance, the grim story of how one mayor, John Payne, entertained the Provost-Marshall to dinner and was then hanged at its
conclusion - we too have known dinners like that!

For several hundred years fishing was the staple calling of St Ives. It was the most important pilchard port in the whole of Cornwall. The extensive harbour was once crammed with fishing craft. The pier on the northern side was built by John Smeaton, who also built the Eddystone Lighthouse, now removed to Plymouth Hoe. In the
museum, stencils with names such as Ancona, Bari, Leghorn and Naples used for the export trade emphasise the extensive nature of the business.

At the beginning of the 19th century mining also became of importance to St Ives. Both copper and tin were worked and one mine in Stennack Valley produced uranium, some of which was used by Madame Curie in her radioactivity experiments. In more recent times St Ives has become better known for its colony of artists, a great change from the older callings. Today tourism is the mainstay.

ST IVES TO PENDEEN WATCH

Annual Guide Section 29 (13.9 miles – 22.3 km) Grading: Severe

Many use St Ives as a staging post. If however you should just wish to walk through, continue along the path below the railway station. This becomes a tarmac lane which proves to be called The Warren at its end. Keep as close as you can to the harbour until you reach its north west corner. Here you have a choice: the purists will stay with the harbour and walk out round what is called the Island or St Ives Head; it is a pleasant walk. However, if time presses a short cut can be made by following the signs to the Tate Gallery; this will bring you out behind Porthmeor Beach.

Those going out to the Island can walk round the harbour to turn left signposted The Museum. When you get to the museum you go down a ramp in front of it. It does not look promising but the route continues round the corner coming out in a car park. Here you bear left then right to go through another car park behind the beach complex of Porthgwidden Beach.

You can walk round the grassy Island passing the interesting little
St Nicholas Chapel. When you have completed your circuit you come back into the edge of the town to keep turning right to go along in front of the Tate Gallery.

The ancient chapel of St Nicholas was partly destroyed by the War Office in 1904 but was rebuilt and restored in 1911 by Sir Edward Hain. It is now beautifully kept and worth a visit when open; surprisingly it houses a Russian icon.

RECAP - SEE WARNING IN INTRODUCTION 'BEFORE YOU LEAVE ST IVES’

Go along behind Porthmeor Beach ignoring the ramp going down to it. The road starts to rise - there is a car park on your right and the path you want starts to bear off right by some public conveniences. You pass a putting green and continue along the tarmac path out into the country.
The busy holiday resort of St Ives drops behind and can be forgotten. It could be
on the other side of England instead of only a few miles back - this stretch is real walkers' territory. The small National Trust property at Hor Point was donated to the trust in 1957 to save it from becoming a local authority refuse tip - comment would be superfluous!

One place where it has been easy to go wrong, because of inadequate signposting, is shortly after Clodgy Point on Burthallan Cliff. A path goes inland here. After the Association's request it has now been signed but take care in case vandals have shifted the marker. The Coast Path cuts behind the
National Trust property of Pen Enys Point. If you have time it is a pleasant extension.

If the weather is clear Carn Naun Point is the place to look back and gloat at what you have done. On a clear day you can see St Agnes Beacon and sometimes Trevose Head. Be careful though a little later, just before the stream, where there is a path down to the beach which you should avoid and shortly after the stream a path running inland which you should also ignore.

Look out for seals on the Carracks as they are often there. Sometimes the rocks are called Seal Island for that reason. Just after the Carracks if it is clear you can look ahead to the dramatic outline of Gurnard's Head and even Pendeen Watch. Behind Wicca Pool there is evidence that you are approaching granite country and for the first time you can see the castellated type of cliffs which will soon become familiar.

The path passes behind Porthzennor Cove and surprisingly as it may seem, a small fishing fleet used to operate out of here. On Zennor Head is a plaque: ‘Zennor Headland given to the National Trust, December 1953 in proud and happy memory of the friends whose love has sustained me. A.B.’: a nice thought and a fine gift. A short walk out on to the rocks just beyond the plaque provides views southwards looking right down into Pendour Cove.

After Zennor Head it is decision time. The Coast Path soon turns right to descend steeply down steps; Zennor itself is ahead along the track, so the miles you have planned ahead will no doubt clinch the argument.

ZENNOR

Zennor is small and rural, and has an excellent pub the Tinners’ Arms. There is a little wayside museum which includes models of Cornish mines and there is much to see crammed into a very small space.

Undoubtedly the most interesting building in Zennor is the church. Outside to the left of the entrance porch is a memorial to John Davey of Boswednack 'who was the last to possess any considerable traditional knowledge of the Cornish language'. In the church are memorials to miners killed in mining disasters and a Master Mariner who was lost near Manila in the Pacific Ocean; sad reminders of past pursuits hereabouts.

Carved on a bench and in a small chapel on the right is the famous figure of the Mermaid with her comb and glass. The legend is that she sat in that place to listen to the beautiful singing of a certain chorister. She then enticed him down to the sea where he was never seen again but only heard thereafter singing in the deeps with his love. If that is found hard to believe remember that it was at Zennor that the locals, in an effort to retain Spring, were reputed to have set about fencing in the cuckoo!

The path dips down behind Pendour Cove where there are steps, and where the stream is crossed by a little bridge. A surprising collection of interesting and semi-exotic plants grows here; Himalayan balsam, montbretias, fuchsias and the pretty yellow mimulus or monkey flower.

The path climbs and goes along the top to get behind a disused quarry, and then turns seawards again on a track used in time past for mining purposes, down to Carnelloe Long Rock, the point of which provides an excellent view forward of Gurnard's Head. Shortly after leaving the point there are some spectacular rock pinnacles.

Inland from Boswednack Cliff can be seen the little settlement of Treen. Do not confuse this with another place with exactly the same name in the south of the Land's End peninsula. The confusion is increased because Gurnard's Head is called Trereen Dinas and the other Treen has a famous headland similarly called - Treryn Dinas.

There is an impressive disused engine house behind Treen Cove. On Gurnard's Head there is a choice of two diversions. One leads out to the spectacular headland, which was an iron age cliff castle with an inner rampart specially designed for the launching of sling stones. The other diversion is to the licensed hotel inland, with a corner rampart specially designed for the alleviation of the thirst that comes from cliff walking - this sort of thirst will have to wait a long time before it can be satisfied again.

On the north side of Porthmeor Cove there is a marvellous series of castellated pinnacles. Looking inland from this point it is possible to see Watch Croft which has, with its 827 feet (250 m), the distinction of being the highest point in the last range of hills in England.

South of the stream the path passes through another coastal bog, once again assisted by broken paving slabs. An indication that this is boggy country is provided by the pretty pink cross-leaved heath, this being the heather which is most tolerant if it is raining and a sea mist spoils the view; it can be a depressing place under these
conditions.

After Carn Moyle the path goes up steeply past some jagged metamorphic rocks, then it is granite again.

It is possible to look down into Great Zawn and then there is a long climb again to the top of Halldrine Cliff. This is certainly an old mining area and there is a number of disused engine houses inland; Castle Rock is out to sea.
Bosigran is difficult to negotiate and we have asked the National Trust for better signing. As you drop off Carn Veslan look ahead to the ridge of Bosigran Cliff and aim for the inland high point (not the big hill inland with the tower). The path drops, starts to veer left uphill, crosses through a ruined wall and then forks right (not the
obvious path going up left).

Shortly you do go left up another clear path but in only a few yards turn right up a more indistinct path heading for the inland high point. As you get nearer you pass round to the left of it to drop into the valley. Here you go across a main track used by climbers and on across a little stone bridge. You go straight up the other side, only bearing right again as you approach the top wall. Bosigran Head is a marvellous viewpoint even if you do not want to look at climbers. Those who have not seen climbers in action before should look carefully over the cliff southwards, where they are not likely to be disappointed, because this area is the most important in the West Country for climbers.

Climbing started here about the turn of the 20th century, and like so many other leisure pursuits, has increased considerably since the Second World War: looking at some of their activities it may be that 'leisure' is not quite the correct description!

On Bosigran Cliff too, there are some of the interesting rock basins that sometimes occur on the top of granite; these are little shallow depressions often filled with water. They are formed over countless years partly by the erosion of wind and water and partly by the very slightly acid rain dissolving the rock.

Coming away from Bosigran Cliff you cross a small stream and here the path turns somewhat inland to gain height. There is an alternative, a fairly well defined path on the right leading to a rectangular plaque set in the rock ridge south of Porthmoina Cove - this says 'Commando Ridge'.

On this ridge Commando soldiers were trained in rock climbing in the years 1940-1945. Those in need of a rest can stop at the top and get a long distance grandstand view of the climbing parties at Bosigran.

The next stretch is National Trust property, and if you are fortunate with the weather this will be an excellent walk. There are rock features beside a high level path and the sea shows various shades of blue and green and is
particularly clear.

To the south the square tower of Morvah Church comes into view, but do not be misled into thinking that there is any chance of refreshment nearby. Morvah boasts not even a shop let alone a public house.

On the cliff above Carn Clough, Pendeen Church comes into sight. It was built in the 1830s to find work for the unemployed miners and its design, drawn by the then vicar, is based on Iona Cathedral. Portheras Cove is the first good beach since St Ives, but the coaster 'Alacrity' was wrecked here in 1963 and its remains can still be seen at very low tide – the remains have been ground down over the years and unfortunately, tiny razor sharp bits of metal can still be found: you do need to bear this in mind if you wish to swim off this lovely beach.

Beyond Portheras Cove the path is a track on to Pendeen Watch. An open air service in the Summer on June 29th, St Peter's Day, is traditionally held above Boat Cove.

Pendeen Watch lighthouse was built in 1900. It was needed because this spectacular coastline was the end of many a good ship.

If you have any question on any of the above please do not hesitate to contact one the event organisers found on the Contact us page click here

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