Land Use

Apart from scattered farmsteads, the two small north coast villages of Zennor and Morvah provide easy access to the popular routes of the South West Coast Path, the Tinner’s Way and the Coffin Trail. Smaller hamlets are found along the dramatic and stunning coast road, the B3305, such as at Rosemergy and Porthmeor. The main road through these places becomes characteristically narrow and winding. Further west, a linear pattern of housing, mostly terraced cottages has developed along the coastal road such as at Pendeen and Trewellard, with the older medieval town of St Just with its twin squares providing most local facilities. The traditional buildings, houses and farmsteads are of local vernacular, granite construction.

The archaeological interest in West Penwith is of international importance. The range of archaeological relics ranging from Neolithic quoits (tombs), standing stones from the Bronze Age such as the stone circle at Tregeseal and the well-known ‘Men-an-Tol’ near Carn Galva, bear testament to early human settlement together with the notable remains from the Romano British period at Chysauster, near Nancledra and Carn Euny to the extreme west of the Central Hills. The rocky headland at Gurnard’s Head and Bosigran also provide evidence of Iron Age cliff castles. This wild landscape has a powerful sense of place largely due to the (apparent) absence of 21st century pressures and provides inspiration for many writers and artists.

The whole area is famed for its past of hard metal mining, particularly on the north coast from the Cot Valley at St Just and at Pendeen where relics of the mining industry are very evident. Here, the

prehistoric fields are littered with redundant mine buildings old waste heaps and fenced off shafts, a legacy of the 19th Century.
Just outside Pendeen lies Geevor Tin Mine, which is preserved as a working mine and is a key tourist site. This area forms the core of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining World Heritage Site in Penwith. The Cot and Kenidjack valleys form breaks in the otherwise elevated coastline with both valleys revealing extensive evidence of the former mining industry.

North of Land’s End is the popular Whitesand Bay stretching for one mile between the headlands of Pedn-mên-du and Aire Point. At high tide the beach, a popular surf spot, is divided into two with Sennen Cove beach to the south and Gwynver beach to the north bounded by 38 hectares of stabilised sand dunes. A short walk west out of Sennen, past accessible granite cliffs, a popular spot for climbers, brings you to the actual Land’s End, otherwise known as The Peal where a finger of sharp, craggy granite called the Longships dips into the sea where is mounted the Longships unmanned lighthouse. The western exposure of jointed granite cliffs from Land’s End to Gwennap Head is the most westerly point of England.

Apart from the prominent tourist facility at Land’s End, visitor infrastructure past Sennen is low-key, although the Land’s End Airport has recently undergone some expansion. Upland areas are almost devoid of settlement with most dwellings built in the sheltered south east of the downs.

The south coast of the peninsula is undulating but still has a rugged and indented coastline with many headlands and small coves with slipways providing access for fishing boats such as at Porthgwarra, Penberth and Lamorna Cove. There is a distinctive and regular pattern of narrow linear valleys with small streams running north-west to south-east draining towards Mount’s Bay.

On the sheltered cliff land between Mousehole and Lamorna, remnant small horticultural fields grow daffodils and potatoes. These fields date back to the late 19th century and were cultivated to take advantage of the low sun angles to hasten the growing season. Many of the field boundaries have now been removed to provide access for modern planting and harvesting machinery, resulting in the historic character of the small irregular field system being largely erased. The largest settlement in this area is Mousehole, a very popular tourist destination where summer visitors flock to see its historic working fishing harbour and its cluster of granite cottages along winding narrow streets providing a picture postcard setting.

Active granite quarrying operations in elevated land at Castle-an-Dinas and operations at Penlee quarry (close to the AONB at Newlyn) are controlled under the Review of Mineral Planning Permissions.

Biodiversity & Geodiversity

The moorland vegetation of West Penwith consists of western heath intermixed with gorse, hawkweed, scabious and fine grasses. By contrast the areas of wet heath are populated with purple moor grass, cross leaved heath and western gorse.

Whitesand Bay dunes contain the only British population of a shield bug which was first recorded in 1864 and is associated with sparsely vegetated areas of loose sand.