| Date: | 20th. January 2007 | |
| County: | CORNWALL | |
| Location: | St. Agnes (above Trevaunance Cove) | |
| Type: | Scenic Area (Coast) | |
| Sub-Type: | Headland, Cliffs, Beach | |
| Viewed by: | WALK from car park | |
| Car Park: | Free (on street) | |
| Difficulty: | Moderate. Uphill onto headland. | |
| Distance: | xKm | |
| Season: | Winter | |
| Weather: | Clear skies but hazy. Cloud increasing. | |
| Time Of Day: | Mid-Afternoon | |
| Camera: | Casio Exilim EX-Z850 Pocket Zoom (JPG) | |
| Scene Rating: | ••••• |
The next good day we had was on January 20th. 2007.
We didn't have much time, since we had to return home to meet a visitor after a couple of hours. This was a pity, because the sun was shining brightly - although we had to keep moving briskly, since the air was cold from the previous night's frost.
We decided to walk through Peterville and up Town Hill to the edge of St. Agnes village, before turning right along Rocky Lane and taking in the views on the way to the St. Agnes headland.
Near the top of Town Hill is the turning down to the odd St. Agnes landmark called "Stippy Stappy." It's a terrace of workmens' cottages built on a path down to Quay Road, which links Peterville to Trevaunance Cove. The terrace steps down at each separate cottage, hence the name.
The suburban bungalows along Rocky Lane still had a surprising variety of shrubs in flower, although the petals were often edged with black from the frost and cold winds.
These camelias were among the brightest of the survivors, undoubtedly aided by the fact that the winter had been surprisingly mild - maybe an indication of accelerating global warming.
Turning left by the modern Catholic church, a narrowing lane takes you past bungalows which gradually decrease in frequency as they become interspersed with paddocks and larger gardens.
Near the end of the lane is an overgrown stone ruin - once the engine-house of the Wheal Friendly tin mine.
As you approach you might think that it's set in waste ground, separated from the lane by a hedge of broadleaved shrubs and gorse bushes...
...but as you draw parallel you see that, unlike the many other abandoned mine buildings in the area, it is set in well-maintained private ground.
Very few Cornish mine buildings have been restored and put to other uses. One exception is Wheal Kitty, which has been turned into an industrial estate housing a local radio station, a web-site developer and workshops which make such things as surf-boards and picture-frames.
The Wheal Friendly engine house is one of the most picturesque of the abandoned mines, with thick swathes of ivy clinging to its chimney.
Just beyond Wheal Friendly the lane narrows to a close. But pedestrians can continue down a rock-strewn footpath at the edge of a field, until they reach viewpoints which overlook the valley separating Wheal Friendly from Wheal Kitty.
A patch of open ground also gives what is probably the best overall view of Trevaunance Cove, and the various buildings which lead down to it.
The most well-known of these is the Driftwood Spars pub, which you can see here (bottom right.)
From the viewpoints, the path drops down into a narrow valley. On the opposite side, shy holiday chalets tried to hide among the trees.
A sign marked "Public Footpath" looked as if it was pointing to someone's garden, but in fact the path skirts round the side and climbs up to a narrow road which separates more bungalows from a rugby field.
Two full rugby teams were passing muddy balls through the cold air, but their hoarse shouts did little to disturb the rabbits grazing nearby.
On the opposite side a path at last gave access to the wide band of rough shrubbery which runs along the top of the coastal cliffs. Amongst the predominant gorse, thorny bushes struggle to reach the height of a man - bent and deformed by the strength of the prevailing wind.
More commonly the vegetation rises only to chest-height and it's difficult to see where the thorn-trees end and the gorse-bushes begin.
The two together form an impenetrable mass, which is an important habitat for tits and other small wild birds.
The thorn and gorse scrub is typical of the area, since both are able to thrive on the poor earth thrown out of the old tin mines as "spoil."
The severe beauty of the bare winter thorn branches is mollified by the dense green and brown of the gorse, with it's mass of yellow flowers.
Gorse flowers almost all the year round, and the vibrant yellow petals give a constant promise of spring in the depths of winter.
Why the bushes should flower at a time when there are fewer birds and almost no insects to pollinate them is one of nature's mysteries.
In areas of intense spoil, such as those surrounding piles of stones and the filled or "capped" shafts down to the old mine workings, even the chest-high scrub cannot be sustained and the scrub is no more than knee-high.
Despite the haze, it was possible to see along the cliffs to Trevellas Point (where we walked last time) and the long sand beach of Perranporth.
The cliffs running between Trevellas Point and the South-Eastern end of Peranporth are quite sheer and walkers would be unlikely to survive any fall into the sea.
They are also untrustworthy, since the rock is loose and unstable.
Rocks and shale falling from the cliffs between Trevellas and Perranporth drop in the sea, but between Trevaunance and Trevellas there is plenty of evidence of the hazard of falling rocks, strewn over the beach.
On the stretch of coastline between St. Agnes and Chapel Porth the drop into the sea is less precipitous.
The slope is gentle enough to allow shrubs to anchor it, as it curves down to the blue waters.
Since we were pressed for time we did not venture further along the coastal path towards Towanroath and Chapel Porth.
Instead, we headed back to Trevaunance Cove. Being so close to the beach, there are sections here where the path has been paved by the National Trust.
This is unusual for tracks along the St. Agnes headland, so maybe they were having problems with erosion.
The rock of the cliffs often have ruddy colours mixed with various shades of grey, which enable their profile to cut through even overcast conditions.
This section of the coast is completely open to the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlantic breakers pound the cliffs and beaches year round.
The predictability of the strong waves also makes the North Cornish coast a popular venue for surfers, who can still be seen braving the elements in the dead of winter.
Dropping down towards the Cove you can get a clear view of the beach restaurants and ice-cream booths popular with tourists in the summer.
The booths do a good line of rich, cream-coloured Cornish ice-cream in summer, but not in the winter, when all the cafes and shops are shuttered up.
Over the years, various attempts have been made to build a walled harbour in Trevaunance Cove, but at each attempt the winter storms have reduced the walls to a pile of rubble.
Access to the restaurants and the concrete slipway, which descends past them to the beach, is via a single-track road.
This is the end of Quay Road, which runs down from Peterville.
It is curious that Trevaunance Cove should be popular with tourists, since the beach is not very wide and soon gives way to rocks.
At low tide, the beach gives the impression that it's large, since the tide retreats so far. But at high tide the beach practically disappears.
Just up the road from the restaurants is the St. Agnes lifeboat station.
This is not an ocean-going lifeboat station, but an inshore rescue unit, with a outboard-powered rubber boat donated by the BBC Blue Peter programme.
The lifeboat is still busy throughout the year, rescuing surfers and people in kayaks who are blown out to sea, or people stranded at the base of cliffs by the rising tide.
Many St. Agnes people are involved with the lifeboat, including doctors from the St. Agnes surgery.
A closer approach to the Trevaunance Cove restaurants gives a better view of the Trevellas headland. The path that Xue was walking up, at the beginning of the last post, can be clearly seen.
The beach is a popular place to walk dogs in the winter months, although this is prohibited in the tourist season, even if dog-owners are carrying pooper-scoopers...
Since we didn't wan't to walk back through Peterville on the main road, we cut along the first path up the hillside towards the Wheal Kitty workshops.
The path was still muddy here, but the warm afternoon light on the flowering gorse made it a pleasant walk none the less.
If followed to the end, this path carries you back to the top of the cliffs which overlook Trevaunance Cove.
Since the rise and fall of the path is gentle it's a popular walk with the many retired people who live in the area, who spend hours watching the surfers from memorial seats on the cliff-top.
But since we needed to get back quickly, we doubled back along a narrower, steeper path through the gorse...
...which lead us through a final band of dense gorse scrub to the edge of the Wheal Kitty workshop-estate, from which it was only a short walk home.
Beach,
Cliff,
Coast,
Cornwall,
Flower,
Gorse,
Headland,
Scrub,
St. Agnes,
Tin Mine,
Trevaunance,
View,
Walk
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