Kynance Cove

My family moved from Penzance to Helston when I was 11 and it was strange to no longer be living beside the sea. However, Helston made up for it with such things as Flora Day (see here), many new friends (I'm still friends with most of them 50 years on) and access to The Lizard. 

As I was in Helston this past weekend it would have been criminal not to have a drive out to visit a few of my childhood haunts.

 

The Lizard is that lump of land at the very bottom of Cornwall - it is, in fact, the most southerly part of the UK. It's a peninsula and, unlike most of Cornwall that is built upon sturdy granite, The Lizard is mostly made of serpentine - a beautiful stone that can vary in colour from green to red to brown and black. Many believe the name 'Lizard' comes from the green rocks everywhere but it's more likely to be a corruption of the old Cornish name Lys Ardh meaning 'high court'. 

The Lizard has two main bodies of water - Loe Pool and the Helford Passage. Loe Pool is a large freshwater lake that stretches from Helston all the way to Porthleven two miles away where it is separated from the sea by a thin strip of sand (Loe Bar).

Meanwhile, the Helford is a wide river that attracts millionaires and their yachts and some of the best oysters you'll ever eat (grown in some of the seven creeks where the Helford river meets the sea).

Much of The Lizard is covered in moorland which is of special scientific interest due to the diversity and rarity of its wildlife. It's also where you'll find the great satellite dishes of Goonhilly Earth Station, the Royal Navy Air Station HMS Seahawk at Culdrose and the seal sanctuary at Gweek. It's a particularly beautiful part of Cornwall and has been featured in hundreds of books and TV shows.

Which brings me to Kynance Cove, which doubled as the fictional Nampara in the BBC's recent (2005) re-make of the classic Poldark TV series (it's marked with a red dot on the map above).

The coastline around the Lizard is dramatic with towering craggy cliffs and great stacks of rock jutting out into the sea. Kynance is one of the best examples and it also has a small beach which attracts a lot of holiday makers. My family went there quite a lot when I was a kid and I was reminded this weekend of the steep walk to and from the clifftop car park. 

It's worth every huff and puff though.

The four largest stacks (from left to right) are called The Bishop, Gull Rock, Asparagus Island and Steeple Rock. I don't know why Asparagus Island is so named but I did notice that the rocks sprouted large mats of Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum), which is sometimes known as Sea Asparagus. It was once quite popular as a vegetable but Marsh Samphire (Salicornia europaea) is now the preferred choice of the gourmand. 

Rock Samphire is very rich in Vitamin C - sailors used to eat it to ward off scurvy - and tastes salty with a flavour of fennel or parsley. Some say it also tastes a bit like creosote or tar and, sadly, I have to agree because I am sensitive to plant turpenes. Some fruit and veg - particularly mangoes - taste to me like I'm painting a fence while eating my lunch.

A lovely way to spend part of a Sunday and a nice (steep and tiring) walk down memory lane.