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Route Sennen Cove - Land’s End - Nanjizal Bay County Cornwall Difficulty Moderate Distance 9km (5.6 miles) Typical time Four hours OS grid reference: SW355265, Explorer 102 Starting point Sennen Cove: there are car parks in the village and on the right of the road at the top of the hill

Blister rating: 3/5

View rating: 3/5

Why I love this walk

Land’s End: the name says it all. There is nothing left: nothing but sea and the Cornish peninsula of West Penwith, jutting into the Atlantic, a hard-scrabble farmland of weathered granite.

One of the best walks in the area begins in the harbour car park at Sennen Cove (stage 3 of the route on the right). A steep climb over the headland of Ped-men-du yields views of Longships reef, scene of countless wrecks. From late spring into summer, basking sharks can be seen as the walk follows the coast to Land’s End, taking in the remains of pre-300BC Maen Castle. Below, where the Atlantic batters the cliffs, is more evidence of shipwreck.

From Land’s End, the path continues to Greeb Farm, which is as far as many tourists venture. But another half hour, along a sometimes precipitous path, brings us to entrancing Nanjizal Bay with its grey seals, fulmar, kittiwake and shag; the veins of tourmaline and quartz, eroded out of the granite, make for a geologist’s paradise.

Head inland across heathland, past the First and Last Inn and back to Sennen Cove. The lifeboat station reminds us that, for all its beauty, Land’s End is raw and elemental.

THE ROUTE

1 Turn right outside the car park. About 100m down the hill is a path on the right.

2 Take this to the seafront. Turn left through the car park to a pub at the junction of the road coming down.

3 Keeping on the seafront, pass the pub, the lifeboat station and enter a smaller car park where concrete steps lead up to the clifftop.

4 Go up the steps on to a path leading to the right, towards an old lookout station with a castellated roof-line. Follow the signposted coastal path until you see to your right a headland with a building.

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5 Walk towards this building, with the Longships Lighthouse as background.

6 The First and Last House offers refreshments, while the way continues along the coast to a suspension bridge over a deep chasm.

7 Go to the right of the buildings in front; the chasm is now bypassed.

8 Walk past the restaurant, bar and assorted other buildings, and find a path going to the right.

9 It leads into a valley with a stream and a footbridge.

10 Cross the bridge and follow the path up the rise, before turning left to keep by the coast for 2km. A large white house can be seen high up. Just before this the path drops to a little beach.

11 The beach is down to the right and there is a junction just before the path crosses the gulley with the white house on the far side. Turn left and go up on a rough path. This levels out and goes through scrub with a stone wall on the left. You come to a stile with a homemade sign and a path left through the crop.

12 There is an opening in the far corner of the field.

13 Take it and turn right.

14 Follow the field edge on the right, go into the next field and cross to the far hedge. Turn right. Follow the field edge round to a gate and a stone stile.

15 Go through, passing farms, to a drive that comes to a T-junction.

16 Directly opposite, a stile leads into the farmyard. Cross the yard to another stile next to a gate.

17 Follow the field edge on the right, passing a stone cross on the right. At the far end is another stone stile.

18 Go into the field and head for the far corner, by the gable end of the house in the centre. Walk in front of a row of houses to a road where there is a T-junction.

19 The route continues along the short road ahead to join the A30. If you look to the left you might be tempted by the farm offering cream teas.

20 When you reach the road turn right, signposted “Penzance”. After 1km, on the far side, just before a filling station and by a white cottage, is a footpath.

21 Take it over the stiles.

22 After a thatched cottage is a lane.

23 Turn right. After 500m, take a road to the village.

24 Go right for the car park.

Source: www.walkingworld.com

Contributor: Jim Grindle. Walk No 1515

Things to see

Stunning less-trodden coastal walk, passing beautiful bays on the way to Land’s End

Pub rating: 4/5

Pub: First and Last Inn, Sennen

Unquestionably one of Cornwall’s most famous inns in England’s most westerly village. Steeped in the folklore of smuggling and wrecking

Where to stay

The Bosun’s Locker Cottage
Built in the 1970s this small terrace of holiday cottages has views out to sea and all the way to Cape Cornwall

The Cove
A boutique hotel with 15 luxury self-catering apartments and an excellent restaurant that attracts diners from across west Cornwall

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