Toby Keel
The Cornish coastline stretches for 422 miles, reaches heights of 732ft (at High Cliff, above Rusey Beach) and includes more than 300 beaches. The statistics tell just a tiny part of the tale, though, as Ben Lerwill writes in the May 21 issue of Country Life. 'This is a serpentine land-meets-seascape of ancient inlets and tumbling waves, of rearing cliffs and sun-caught spindrift, of smugglers’ caverns and soft sands, of winds that roar off the ocean and headlands that stand immutable,' writes Ben. 'Cornwall is a promontory that invites awe.'
Ben has picked out some of his favourites, which we'll be sharing on the Country Life website over the next couple of weeks — and we're starting with Kynance Cove.
Kynance Cove
Of all these places, Kynance Cove is likely to need the least introduction. As the scenic highlight of the Lizard Peninsula — which really is saying something — it serves up a preposterously grand spread of pinnacles, cliffs, caves, sands and rugged sea stacks. In sunshine, with the white beach offset by the turquoise wash of the shallows, it’s like something from a fantasy.
Deservedly popular, the cove is managed by the National Trust and draws big crowds over the peak summer season.
The sagest advice is not only to time your visit with low tide, when the sands are at their most impressive, but to avoid the busiest tourist months if possible.
A hulking tidal outcrop, the cove’s centrepiece, is Asparagus Island, so-called because of the native wild asparagus that grows there. The interconnected caves that appear at low tide were named by Victorian visitors, resulting in the likes of The Parlour, The Drawing Room and The Ladies Bathing Pool.
Visiting Kynance Cove
The cove is on the west side of the Lizard, just around from Lizard Point itself (which is 2.5 miles via the coastal path).
It's managed by the National Trust — see nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cornwall/kynance-cove — with the car park (£2-£10, or free for members).
Look familiar? Kynance Cove has been featured in TV shows including Poldark and House of the Dragon
'Hail, fairy-featured, beautiful Kynance! / A loving smile is ever on thy face, / And Beauty revels mid thy gold arcades.' — so wrote the poet John Harris in 1855, and it's still true today of the unspoilt Kynance Cove.
Kynance Cove is worth the trip even in winter, when what you lose in warmth you gain in drama
It's run by the National Trust — so naturally there's a tea shop.
Kynance Cove's Asparagus Island is as pretty as it is oddly named.
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