privately owned porthgwarra cove

porthgwarra (in cornish means a very wooded cove) is in fact quite accessible from porthcurno, probably an hour’s walk along the southwest coast path.

we were not certain of the weather & the terrain, so decided to head back to our car after reaching st leaven’s church.

so after minack theatre & the short porthcurno hike, we took a drive instead to porthgwarra. the access road is tricky as for quite a long stretch it is only 1 car width. it seems pure chance that 2 vehicles do not ended head to head & having to reverse (couldn’t imagine how?) but i guess probability of that is low because so few vehicles. there are intervals where there are wider space for 2 vehicles to cross. still we manage to reach & leave portgwarra w/o any difficult manoeuvres.

slipway and winch at porthgwarra

apparently porthgwarra cove & the winch & slipway are privately owned, though public are allowed to use them.

porthgwarra cove

porthgwarra cove cafe is left of this building & there is a large carpark beyond that which the cafe proprietress charged £2 for the parking. quite ok.

cave tunnels

we followed the signs & got up to the southwest coast path.

looking down, some kids were playing hide & seek at a cave tunnel below. seems that there were more tunnels at the foot of the cove’s slipway is a tunnel dug by tin miners from St Just to give farmers horse-and-cart access to the beach to collect seaweed to use as a fertiliser.

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

we were blessed with glorious sunshine. the walk was very pleasant, good wind, not too chilly.

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

for this section, the walk was quite gentle, not too much difficulty.

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

we reached the gwennap head lookout station (national coast watch institution).

maybe in the distance is land’s end. the southwest coast path would lead us to land’s end. at our slow progress maybe 1.5hrs. but we were being conservative, uncertain about the sudden change in weather & not wanting to trek back to the car if we went  too far. so we decided to turn back & drive to sennen cove afterwards & walked from there to land’s end.

porthgwarra hike

porthgwarra hike

there were these red & black cones along the ridge. we were wondering what they were & the use?

it was until later that i learned that they are “Trinity House navigation daymarks on Gwennap Head”, and “When the red cone obliterates the black and white one the observer at sea is directly above the dangerous Runnel Stone”. wow!

£5.25 cream tea porthgwarra cove cafe

£5.25 cream tea porthgwarra cove cafe

we shared one £5.25 cream tea at the porthgwarra cove cafe.^^

we were not so enthused with this cornish cream tea/devonshire cream tea thingy. just scones & clotted cream. when i read up, they say in america the fat content of clotted cream will make it by definition butter! i do like butter & especially homemade name/fruit preserve etc so i am ok with scones & butter/jam. one is quite enough though. these scones a bit of the crumbly type & not really so “pang” aka tasty.

c.h.e.f andy