The Penrose family owned a large estate to the south of Helston since mediaeval times which eventually extended from Gunwalloe to one side of Porthleven Harbour. In 1771, it was sold to John Rogers, who became the new squire of the estate and it remained in the Rogers family for another two centuries. In 1974, a large part of it, covering 1,500 acres, was gifted to the National Trust. Penrose House remains as a private family home. This was originally a U-shaped building created in the 17th Century by the Penrose family and remodelled a number of times in the 18th and 19th Centuries by the Rogers family.
The Loe was originally the estuary of the River Cober which was flooded after the last Ice Age when sea levels rose. The contours of the original valley can be traced for several miles out to sea. The estuary is now blocked by a bar of sand and shingle which has created the largest freshwater lake in Cornwall. The earliest record of the name was in 1337, when it was called "La Loo", but is now pronounced "low". It is from the Cornish word logh which is equivalent to the Scottish "loch".
The Loe Bar is composed mainly of shingle that is not of local origin: it is mostly chalk flint. It is thought that this was washed down from the terraces of the river which the English Channel once was, when sea levels rose after the last Ice Age. It is also thought that the bar of shingle initially formed offshore and then slowly moved towards the shore so that the bar across The Loe may not have been in place until early mediaeval times or at most a few thousand years ago. The bar was originally porous, allowing seawater into the lake but fine silt released by mining activity upriver has caused it to seal so that it is now freshwater. To prevent flooding in parts of Helston, a disused mine adit has been repurposed as an overflow from the Loe Pool into the sea. On occasions this has blocked and so the Bar has been intentionally breached to release the build-up of water, but the Bar has always resealed itself. It is thought that Longshore Drift plays an important part in the maintenance of the Bar and causes it to gradually accumulate more sediment over time.
During violent winter storms, waves have been known to break all the way over the bar into the Loe Pool. Even under normal conditions, the sea off the beach is extremely dangerous and a number of people have been drowned, some just from paddling. It is notorious for its massive unexpected shore dumps which can appear out of nowhere even in calm weather and suck people under the water as the shingle caves in beneath their feet. Some locals have called for a skull-and-crossbones to be added to signs on the "killer beach" which is reputed to take one soul every seven years.
In December 1807, the Navy frigate HMS Anson hit bad weather off Mount's Bay. They attempted to head into Falmouth harbour but realised they were trapped by the wind on the wrong side of the Lizard. The captain anchored the ship but the anchor rope snapped. A second anchor was deployed and held fast but this also snapped. As a last resort, the captain attempted to sail the ship onto the beach at the centre of the Loe Bar, but hit an uncharted reef just 100 metres off the beach. The force of the collision caused the main mast to topple onto the beach. Some of the crew were able to escape across it but around 100 drowned in the huge breakers. One of the witnesses was Henry Trengrouse who was so moved by the helplessness of the onlookers that he spent much of his life and personal savings developing the rocket lifesaving apparatus which went on to save many thousands of lives. A canon salvaged from the wreck in 1964 is on display outside the Helston museum and a cross overlooks the beach, commemorating both the disaster and the life work of Henry Trengrouse. Gold coins are occasionally found which are thought to be from pockets of the officers aboard.
In January 1527, the San Antonio was sailing from Lisbon to Antwerp with a cargo including copper and silver ingots, cloth, candlesticks and musical instruments. The cargo was extremely valuable, with an equivalent value in the order of hundreds of millions of pounds today. The vessel encountered bad weather and anchored in Mount's Bay, hoping for it it pass before rounding the Lizard. However her anchor cable snapped and she was driven towards the shore. The captain attempted to beach the vessel on the shingle of the Loe Bar but instead struck the reef just off the beach near Fishing Cove. The ship was destroyed and nearly half the crew drowned. Much salvage took place from the wreckage and the survivors accused some prominent local gentry of robbery with violence. The King of Portugal pressed charges and a court case followed but the outcome is unknown, however, there is evidence that the estates of the three accused landowners grew substantially afterwards, presumably assisted by the value of goods salvaged. In the 1970s, a copper ingot was recovered by a shellfish diver, but the significance of this was not understood and the location of the wreck was not known until 1981 when a holidaymaker discovered a copper ingot washed up on the beach. A local diver then found a melon-sized ball of silver weighing nearly 9kg lying on the reef. The wreck is now protected and no diving is allowed within 75 metres of its position.
In Cornwall, cliffs erode at an average rate of between roughly 3cm - 30cm per year depending on the hardness of the rocks and location. In reality this often happens in infrequent sudden collapses rather than as a steady, gradual process. It was found that one massive storm in 2014 caused around 100 times the average amount of erosion. There are obvious implications from climate change leading to more frequent or more intense storms.
In December 1918, the Norwegian cargo ship Heidrun was on its way from Swansea to Rouen with a cargo of anthracite to support the war in France. On the day after Boxing Day, they rounded Land's End and encountered a violent storm in Mount's Bay. The ship disappeared without trace and all the crew were lost.
A wreck off Gunwalloe was thought to be a ship known as the Ibis for many years as a life ring from the Ibis had been found floating at this location. However a local diver recovered a plate from the engine block from which the ship was identified as the Heidrun. The discovery was the first news that relatives of the crew in Norway had received of what had happened and a party of them flew over to talk to the divers. As a result, the relatives arranged for a memorial to be placed in Gunwalloe church.
The name "blackthorn" is just a general reference to the dark colour of the bark, rather than anything specific to do with the thorns which are not any darker than the rest of the wood. It's primarily a comparison with hawthorn where the bark is lighter (in fact hawthorn is also known as "white thorn" despite not having white thorns). Just to confuse things further, the flowers of blackthorn are whiter than hawthorn!
The large building known as "the cellars" was built in parts. Based on the number of windows, it is thought that the first part was built as a summer lodging house and winter equipment store for pilchard fishermen, probably in the 18th Century. In the early 19th Century, it was extended to create a fish cellar. This was further extended in the late 19th Century.
By the Second World war, the building was redundant and was used by the Home Guard. The roof slates were removed in 1965 and it fell into ruin.
In the early 21st Century it was restored and was used as the house of Dr Enys in the BBC's Poldark series.
Records from the cellars indicate a pilchard industry was already established at Fishing Cove in the early 19th Century and likely dates from at least the previous century. Winches along the cliff edge were used to help bring boats up the beach to get them clear of tides and storms. During the 19th Century, capstans (similar to the one at Penberth Cove) were used to raise the boats but hardly anything remains of these. The winch remains you can see today are from the 20th Century and include the remains of a petrol engine.
The slightly long-winded name of Gunwalloe Fishing Cove is to distinguish it from Gunwalloe Church Cove and from other Fishing Coves in Cornwall (one at Godrevy and another at Trebetherick Point next to Daymer Bay). It's also known as Halzephron Beach.
The beach is mostly sand with some small ridges of rock. Along the top of the beach, the sand is fairly coarse and this gets finer towards the low tide line. There's not much beach at high tide but at low tide the beach runs all the way to the Loe Bar.
It is a deceptively dangerous beach despite its innocent appearance which makes swimming very unwise. As well as strong currents around the headland, cavitation of the shingle beneath the sand caused by breaking waves makes it easy to fall or be hit by a projectile pebble, be stunned and inhale seawater. Both humans and dogs have drowned along this stretch in recent years. Local names include "Death beach".
In 1846, the Norwegian ship Elizabeth was carrying a cargo of salt and was driven into the cliffs at Gunwalloe by a gale. Two men and a boy drowned and are buried in Gunwalloe churchyard but the landlord of the Ship Inn - Henry Cuttance - managed to rescue the remaining four members of the crew. He was awarded a silver tankard by the King of Norway. In 2017, a number of his possessions were sold at auction and the tankard fetched over £8000. Amongst the other items sold was a ledger of smuggled goods including brandy, cheese and cotton.
In April 1890 the Liverpool iron steam/sailing ship "Brankelow" was chartered by the Russian government to transport coal and one passenger from Cardiff to Kronstadt. Due to a navigational error (possibly due to compasses being tampered with by the crew), the ship became grounded at Gunwalloe Fishing Cove near the Loe Bar. The Porthleven lifesavers fired a rocket line aboard to help the crew ashore but it was severed and instead the crew attempted to row ashore and capsized. The crew eventually got ashore, leaving the captain aboard. Tugs and salvage equipment arrived at the scene but a strong gale put an end to the operations. The ship and cargo were sold and some limited salvage work was carried out before it broke up in a gale. A winch salvaged from the ship is one of those along the cliff. Much of the coal ended up in the fireplaces of nearby cottages.
The second part of the Latin name of red campion - dioica ("two houses") - refers to the plants' gender. Some plants are male and others are female. The male plants' flowers can be recognised from five yellow stamens sticking out from a protruding ring in the centre of the petals. The female plants' flowers have no protruding ring and instead have 5 curly white stigmas. These produce a white froth to trap pollen.
The dandelion-like flowers along the coast are most likely to be catsear, also known as false dandelion. Catsear is very salt tolerant, not only growing along the coast but actually in sand dunes. The easiest way to recognise it is by the hairy leaves, hence the name. If you can cope with the texture, the leaves are edible and are much less bitter than dandelion leaves.
Another way to tell them apart is when they are flowering. Although dandelion flowers over quite a long period, the most profuse flowering is in April and May whereas catsear's intense flowering period is in late June and through July. Catsear has neater flowers than dandelion with squarer edges to the petals (but still toothed). The stems supporting the flowers are also solid, in contrast with the hollow stem of the dandelion.
The design of the Cornish Lugger was honed into a high-speed vessel for use in smuggling. The largest were up to 75 feet long with three masts of stepped height, allowing a large area of sail to be set. The fastest could average twelve knots between Cornwall and Roscoff, which is fast sailing even by modern standards. The decks were often lined with a dozen or more cannons and another dozen anti-personnel swivel guns loaded with shrapnel-like grapeshot.
Tamarisks, also known as salt cedars, are able to withstand drought, soil salinity, and salt-water spray and therefore thrive in mild coastal areas such as the Cornish coastline. Their ability to accumulate salt and then excrete this through glands in their leaves prevents less salt-tolerant plants from growing around their base.
In November 1872, a sailing vessel called "The Lochleven's Flower", carrying a cargo of grain, was caught in a south westerly gale as it crossed Mounts Bay. It was obvious that she would not be able to escape the bay and must run for the shore. Local people gathered along the beach and the Porthleven lifeboat was launched. To the surprise of all, the crew disembarked into small boats and rowed to the shore. An account was published in the Western Morning News:
Breaker after breaker was surmounted. The features of the poor fellows were plainly seen, and it was hoped some at least would reach the shore. But a few seconds dispelled all hope. No sooner was the last roller passed than the boat fell into the truck, a huge mass of water rose like a wall, and all were engulphed. The boat was smashed into splinters, and the seamen were seen struggling for a short time in the white seething waters, and in sight of unavailable assistance and pitying friends they perished. An attempt was made by joining hands to rescue some, but the sea claimed its victims and all were soon lost to sight.
Meanwhile, the unmanned ship was driven against Halzephron Cliffs and smashed to pieces. It was thought that if the crew had stayed aboard the ship, they could have been rescued.
The name "Halzephron" is well documented as being derived from "Hell's cliff" in Cornish, but note that the "Hal" at the start does not mean "hell"; the words in Cornish are the other way around: als (meaning cliff) and yfarn (meaning hell). The cliffs were given their name due to the many ships that were driven ashore and wrecked here. Some of the bodies that washed ashore are buried on the cliffs as there was no legal requirement to bury the bodies of shipwrecked sailors in churchyards until the start of the 19th Century.
There are panoramic views of Mount's Bay from the end of the headland.
In November 1807, the army transport ship "James and Rebecca" was homeward bound with a squadron of the 9th Light Dragoons including their wives and children. At midnight, she ran aground at Halzephron Cliff due to a navigation error compounded by the dark night. The ship's guns were fired and many local people came to the ship's assistance. Over half the people onboard were rescued using a rope chair, but about 80 were still onboard when the ship broke up. Roughly half of these were rescued from the water but 10 sailors, 28 soldiers and 3 children died.
Dollar Cove is named after the silver Spanish dollars that have occasionally been found from the wreck of a 18th century Spanish Galleon, which is now thought might have been a lost vessel known as the Rio Nova and not the San Salvador which was also wrecked nearby. The ship wrecked in Dollar Cove was carrying two and a half tons of the coins from Spain to the Bank of England for safe keeping during their war with France. In January 1787, she was driven ashore at Dollar Cove in a violent storm. The ship broke in two and spilled the coins into a gully in the bay. The silver dollars found so far are dated from 1765 to 1777.
The walk continues to the left to reach the lane but first you may want to visit Dollar Cove (path on the right), and Church Cove is also at the bottom of the track that runs along the wall ahead.
When you've finished exploring, follow the lane uphill past the farm to reach a pedestrian entrance into a large car park.
The church giving Church Cove its name is said to be on the site of the monastery of St Winwaloe - a 6th Century Breton, and appears as the manor of Winnianton in the Doomsday Book. It's also possible that the saint was matched to a similar-sounding name, as beside Gunwalloe is Chyvarloe, from the Cornish, chy war logh meaning "house on the lake". Gunwalloe could have similar origins such as goon war logh which would be along the lines of "downs by the lake".
The current church was restored in 1870 but dates from the Middle Ages. The detached tower is thought to be the oldest part, dating from early mediaeval times. The church was extended in the 15th Century and the bedrock next to the church was excavated in preparation to add a tower to the church itself, but this was never carried out.
Several churches in Cornwall have been dedicated to St Winwalloe (or Wynwallow) including at Gunwalloe and Landewednack on the Lizard, Tremaine near Launceston and Poundstock near Bude. Winwalloe was the son of a prince of the Celtic kingdom of Dumnonia (now known as Cornwall) born in 460. He fled to Brittany to avoid the plague, founded a monastery and died at the age of 72.
The Schiedam was a Dutch ship in the East India service. It was captured in 1863 by French privateers on the way back from northern Spain with a cargo of timber, but was soon re-captured by an English galley frigate and then served in the English Navy fleet. In 1684, on a return voyage from the military evacuation of Tangiers, the vessel was driven ashore at Gunwalloe Church Cove in a gale. The ship was carrying navy miners, horses and machinery as well as guns and stores which had been captured in the assault. It is reported that the Gunwalloe locals plundered the stores from the wreck together with the ship's sails and cables. The remains of the wreck were rediscovered in 1971, the surviving objects being mainly those of metal such as pewter spoons, brass candlesticks and copper cooking kettles. It is now a designated historic wreck site.
In October 1910, the French schooner Olympe was on her way to Swansea with a cargo of wood for use in the coal mines when she was driven ashore at Gunwalloe Church Cove in a gale. The crew were saved by workers from a nearby hotel who formed a human chain to get the men ashore. Along the high-tide line, the beach was strewn with the cargo.
The Halzephron Inn was built in 1468, making use of the timber from shipwrecks. Many features of the pub are centuries old, including the bar counter. Within the thick wall between the lounge and "Fishermen's Bar" is a shaft leading to a tunnel. It is thought this connected the Inn to a nearby monastery and is also said that it connected to a passage from Fishing Cove, used by smugglers.
The slightly confusing sign arises because the name for the town of Looe (at the opposite end of Cornwall) is also derived from the Cornish word logh. Most locals today would interpret "Looe Bar" as a drinking establishment in southeast Cornwall.
There are two very similar looking members of the daisy family that are both known as "chamomile". English chamomile (also known as Roman chamomile) has hairy stems and is the one used for chamomile tea. German chamomile has smooth stems and higher levels of essential oils so this one is used for chamomile-scented pharmaceuticals (shampoos etc). Pineapple weed is related and is sometimes known as "false chamomile" or more confusingly as "wild chamomile" (even though it isn't chamomile and normal chamomile is also wild!).
English chamomile was once common in Britain but it has declined (due to land clearance and changes to farming practices) to now being classified as Vulnerable. The Southwest is now one if its last strongholds.
The path leads northwest which is a recipe for afternoon rainbows.
As long as the sun is below 42 degrees from the horizon, you can see a rainbow. In the summer, the angle of the sun is too high during the middle of the day for rainbows but you can still get them in the morning and evening (you can potentially see a rainbow before about 10 am and after about 5 pm on any day in Cornwall).
Pineapple weed is related to chamomile and is consequently also known as false chamomile. Unlike chamomile, it doesn't have white flowers - its flowers consisting of little yellow balls are therefore quite distinctive. Even more so is the fruity pineapple-like scent when is trodden on or squeezed.
Pineapple weed was introduced into the UK in the late 19th Century but is now widely naturalised. One reason it has been so successful is that it is able to colonise poor soils on waste ground including cracks between paving and consequently one of its common names is "street weed". In the rural environment it's often encountered near gateways or tracks through fields where the ground has been disturbed by tractors.
The centre point of a rainbow is as far below the horizon as the sun is above it. The lower the sun is in the sky, the taller the rainbow.
Common knapweed (also known as black knapweed) is most easily recognised by its bright purple thistle-like flowers but without spiky leaves. It's actually a member of the daisy family and is often seen along paths and roadside verges. Other names for the plant include "hardhead" (used in Cornwall in Victorian times) and "loggerhead" due to the sturdy flower heads. "knap" is from the Middle English word for "knob" and consequently another name for the plant is "knobweed".
It is an important plant for pollinating insects and was rated in the top 5 for most nectar production in a UK plants survey. In terms of plants that produce both nectar and pollen, it is rated as the top producer overall, producing a good amount of each.
The colours in a rainbow occur because as well as being reflected in a raindrop, the angle of the light is bent slightly (refracted) and the amount of bending depends on the wavelength of light (violet the most and red the least).
A popular misconception is that a butterfly was originally called "flutterby". In fact, the name stems from the Old English word buttorfleoge which literally means "butterfly". The term "flutterby" is thought to have been coined by Shakespeare.
Double rainbows are due to light bouncing twice through some raindrops to produce the feint upper rainbow (more is lost from the 2 bounces) whereas the main bright lower rainbow is from light reflecting just once. That second bounce also flips the order of the colours around (just like a mirror reflection) which is why the upper feint rainbow has colours in the opposite order.
The settlement of Chyvarloe is first recorded in 1235 as Tywarlo. The name means "house on the pool" in Cornish.
Bindweed can normally be spotted in June to September from initially its trumpet-shaped flowers and on closer inspection, being wound around anything and everything. As well as being a nightmare for gardeners and farmers, in the wild it can have a negative effect on biodiversity by choking other native wildflowers and out-competing them for sunlight, moisture and nutrients.
Two different species of bindweed are found in Cornwall. Hedge bindweed has quite large pure white trumpet-shaped flowers and is also known as bellbind due to the shape of the flowers. Field bindweed (also known as creeping jenny) has smaller trumpet-shaped flowers with a striking pink-and-white-striped pattern which wouldn't look out of place in a sweet shop.
As plants go, bindweed is virtually indestructible as not only can the entire plant regenerate from a tiny fragment of root but the seeds can survive in the ground for up to 50 years. The root system can extend to a depth of 16 feet which makes it very difficult to control organically.
Lichens are a partnership of two different organisms: a fungus providing the "accommodation" and an alga or cyanobacterium providing the "food" through photosynthesis. The fungal partner provides a cosy, sheltered environment for the alga and tends it with mineral nutrients. However, the alga partner is more than simply an imprisoned food-slave: it is such a closely-evolved alliance that the fungus is dependant on the alga for its structure. If the fungal partner is isolated and grown on an agar plate, it forms a shapeless, infertile blob.
One in five of all known fungi form lichens. Studies suggest that many species of fungi that form lichens started out from ancestors that lived on organic waste. Fossils have also revealed that the symbiosis between algae and fungi dates back more than 400 million years roughly to the time when plants first evolved from green algae.
Lichens often grow on sick or dying trees so some gardeners assume that the lichen might be harming the tree. In fact, it's purely because these trees have fewer leaves so there is more light available for the algae inside the fungus to photosynthesise. It's too dark under many healthy trees for the lichen to grow.
You'll notice that there is lichen growing on many of the headstones in the churchyard. Of the 2,000 British species, over a third have been found in churchyards and more than 600 have been found growing on churchyard stone in lowland England. Almost half the species are rare and some seldom, if ever, occur in other habitats. Many churchyards are found to have well over 100 species.
Lichens obtain nearly all their nutrients from the atmosphere and therefore can be very sensitive to air pollution. As a general rule of thumb, healthy lichens means clean air, but more specifically, different species have been found to be sensitive to different pollutants. By identifying common species that exhibits change for a particular pollutant, lichens can be used as an early warning dashboard showing not only how much air pollution there is but also what kind.
The carpets of yellow flowers on the coast in June and July are Kidney Vetch. The flowers are red when they open and then turn yellow, and appear to be on a woolly cushion. The plant gets its common name as it was used to treat kidney troubles. Its other name - woundwort - is because it was also used to treat wounds. It is the food plant of the small blue butterfly, which is consequently quite common on the coastal heath.
The white flowers along the coast in July and August which resemble a more compact version of cow parsley are the delightfully-named sea carrot. Unlike cow parsley, the flowers start off pink and become white as they open and sometimes have a single dark red flower in the centre. It's best to avoid touching the leaves of the sea carrot as they can make skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light which can result in blistering caused by extreme sunburn.
The sea carrot is technically the same species as a wild carrot, from which the carrot was domesticated, but is shorter, stouter and more splayed-out than a wild carrot. The two converge the further north and east that you go in Britain: West Cornwall is therefore the pinnacle of sea carrot evolution.
Betony is a grassland herb, common on the coast, with pretty purple anthers that stick out from the plant. The name is derived from the ancient Celtic words bew (meaning head) and ton (meaning good) as it was used as a cure for headaches. From Roman times onward, it was believed to be a cure for a number of things (the Romans listed 47!) including drunkenness. Even as late as the 1800s, Richard E. Banks stated that you should "Eat betony or the powder thereof and you cannot be drunken that day" and John Gerard (1597) said that "It maketh a man to pisse well". Betony was also used to ward away evil spirits (hence it is planted in a number of churchyards) and also to make a dark yellow dye for wool.
The wheatear can often be seen on the coast during the summer month as it nests in rock crevices or rabbit burrows but returns to Sub-Saharan Africa every winter.
For a long time, the wheatear was thought to be a member of the thrush family but genetic studies have revealed they are actually members of the (Old World) flycatcher family which also includes stonechats.
The name "wheatear" is a 16th-century linguistic corruption of "white arse", referring to the bird's prominent white rump.
From mediaeval times until Victorian times, the Spanish currency was based on silver coins known as real (meaning "royal"). A hefty one-ounce silver coin worth 8 silver reals was known as the dollar or piece of 8. Higher value gold coins were also issued including the escudo (worth 2 dollars or 16 reals) and the doubloon (worth 2 escudos or 32 reals). Due to its high uniformity, the Spanish Dollar was used as international currency for many centuries and is the coin upon which the US Dollar was based. The pieces of 8 coins featured the pillars of Hercules, depicted as columns with S-shaped scrolls wrapped around them, and this may be the origin of the dollar symbol.
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