Kynance Cove

Interesting facts

The rock of the cove began about 375 million years ago at an ocean ridge some 30 degrees south of the equator, then drifted north to Cornwall.

Asparagus Island is named after the rare wild asparagus that grows on it, a plant recorded there since the 1830s.

As early as 1847 a writer warned that tourist guides were picking the island's wild asparagus so often it risked disappearing.

The second blowhole earned the name Post Office because its suction is strong enough to swallow a letter.

Asparagus Island was long thought to be tied to shore by sand, until the storms of 2013–14 revealed a rocky ridge probably over 100,000 years old.

In 1832 the Danish brig Ospra, carrying sugar and coffee from Havana to Hamburg, wrecked on Asparagus Island and became local legend as the coffee wreck.

The stacks exist because softer granite and basalt that invaded the serpentine were worn away by the sea, leaving the harder blocks standing.

The Cornish name, Ben Kewnans, means the foot of a steep-sided valley.

Kynance provided the first British record of Porter's rustic, a rare migrant moth from southern Europe.

Its screen career runs from The Thief of Bagdad in 1940 to extra shots of the planet Ahch-To in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Why it is worth it

Kynance Cove lies on the western side of the Lizard peninsula, roughly two miles north of Lizard Point at the very end of the peninsula. What makes it unlike any other Cornish beach is the rock. The cliffs and stacks are serpentine, a rare stone that began as mantle rock beneath an ancient ocean floor and was pushed up onto the land; polished by the sea it turns deep green and red, veined like marbled meat. Against it lies pale sand and, on a clear day, water of an almost tropical turquoise. Geologists value the place as much as painters do: it is part of the West Lizard Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Geological Conservation Review site.

Look closely and the serpentine is not one stone but two. The coarser bastite variety forms the cliffs near the path down, while the finer tremolite serpentine, formed under greater pressure deep in the crust, makes up the islands and stacks out in the bay. Those stacks give the cove its silhouette: Asparagus Island, Gull Rock, Steeple Rock and The Bishop. Asparagus Island hides a blowhole known as the Devil's Bellows, which roars and spouts when the swell is up, and a second one nearby is nicknamed the Post Office. At low tide the sand links the islands to the shore and opens caves to explore; as the water returns it quietly cuts them off again, so the tide deserves attention.

Kynance has drawn travellers for a long time. In the Victorian age it became a fashionable excursion, and its visitors included Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as well as the poets Alfred Tennyson and Algernon Swinburne. The National Trust now cares for the cove and the surrounding cliffs, which sit within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its small café dates from 1929 and only received mains services in 1999, a sign of how remote this corner of Cornwall remained. Film crews have long since discovered the scenery too, using it in productions from Poldark to House of the Dragon.

Getting there

Kynance Cove is about 23 km from Falmouth; the closer market town is Helston, at the head of the Lizard peninsula. The nearest airport is Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY), about 55 km away. Drivers use the National Trust car park on the clifftop, from where a walk of around ten minutes, steep in places and ending in steps, leads down to the beach; parking is limited and fills quickly in summer. By public transport, bus 34 runs from Helston to Lizard village, about two miles from the cove; the South West Coast Path also passes by. There are no lifeguards.

From the encyclopaedia

Kynance Cove is a cove on the eastern side of Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England. It is situated on the Lizard peninsula approximately two miles (3 km) north of Lizard Point. The cove became popular in the early Victorian era, with many distinguished visitors including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the poets Alfred Tennyson and Algernon Swinburne. The BBC has described Kynance Cove as "one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the South West". The South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south west England from Somerset to Dorset passes by on the cliffs overlooking the cove.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kynance Cove

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia