Lamorna Cove to Penzer Point

Lamorna Cove has long been a popular tourist destination, but the area once resonated with the incessant clang of hammers and the roar of explosions from Victorian quarrying. Granite from Lamorna was used to build the Thames Embankment, New Scotland Yard and in various lighthouses, including the Longships Lighthouse off Land’s End. The most dramatic relics of quarrying at Lamorna are the large heaps of granite rocks on the northern slopes of the cove and the overgrown quarry above them.

An industrial past

The first stage of this walk winds its way uphill through the old quarry landscape, now softened by a green pelt of trees that smothers the slopes of the Lamorna Valley. You follow in the ghostly trail of heavy horses that once hauled the swaying wagons, laden with huge blocks of granite, up to the high ground and on to Penzance.

Soon the quarry track is abandoned for a field path that links a trio of typical Cornish farms where you first meet the granite stiles and famous field ‘hedges’ of Cornwall – in reality double-skinned stone walls smothered with vegetation. The way leads to the farm settlements of Kemyel Crease and Kemyel Drea, where you get close to the healthy odours of a working farm as the path leads through the heart of the cow yards.

On the South West Coast Path

Soon the fields lead down to the coast path and the way back to Lamorna. Look out for the disused and overgrown coastguard lookout at Penzer Point, where a constant watch was once kept on the local fishing fleet and on passing shipping. This service has been supplanted since most local fishing boats now have on-board satellite navigation systems and ship-to-shore radios. Wrecks can still occur on this rugged coast, however, when the sea is in the mood for mayhem and the wind is wild. Yet the sunblessed slopes here were once cultivated for the growing of early flowers and potatoes in tiny sheltered meadows called quillets, some of which are still in use.

From Penzer Point the path descends steeply and then passes through Kemyel Crease Wood, a deep stand of mainly Monterey pines and cypresses that was savagely thinned out by a huge storm in 1990. Beyond the trees, the breezy coastline is followed above a glittering sea and past granite slabs and boulders back to Lamorna Cove.

Turn right out of the car park and walk in front of a row of cottages. Cross a bridge over a river, bear right and round left, and in a few paces turn left at a junction. Follow a narrow path that zig-zags uphill among trees. Pass an overgrown quarry, and continue uphill on the main path to reach a junction at Kemyel Wartha.

Turn right and follow a stony track between the houses. At a left-hand bend, go over a steep stile on the right. Follow the field-edge to a stile and then go straight across the next field to a stile. Follow the next field-edge and, where it bends left, keep straight ahead and reach a stile into a lane at Kemyel Crease.

Turn left and follow a surfaced road between houses. Just before an isolated house, leave the surfaced road and go right and over a low stile. Turn left down the edge of a meadow to cross a stile into an area of boggy woodland. Follow the path across a bridge of huge granite slabs and continue to farm buildings at Kemyel Drea.

Go over a stile at a halfway point in the farm buildings. Continue through several gates and across cow yards to reach a stile beside a small Cornish cross. Follow the left edges of the next three fields, crossing high stiles between each one.

Cross a stile into the fourth field. Ignore the stile opposite, and bear diagonally right across the field to a stile part-way down the field edge. (If there are crops growing, go round the edges of the field to reach the stile.) In the next field, head diagonally right towards a house and cross a stile in the hedge. Turn right down a narrow path.

At a junction turn right onto the coast path. Just beyond a redundant and overgrown coastguard lookout, descend very steep steps almost to sea level. Follow the path as it winds across some rocky sections to enter Kemyel Crease Wood. Go through the wood and then follow the coast path just above the sea.

Climb steep steps to the rocky point of Carn-du, and then descend more steps and follow the path across several rocky, but safe, sections to reach Lamorna Cove and the start of the walk.