A stunning seaside walk includes views of rare pink wildflowers and two of the UK’s best beaches. The Lizard coastal trail begins and ends at Kynance Cove, Cornwall. The route is seven miles long and should take around three hours to complete.
It starts at Kynance Cove before moving south along the coast to Pentreath Beach, Polpeor Cove, Lizard Point, Pen Olver, Lizard Village, and back to Kynance Cove. It is a lovely walk in springtime, when the grassland is scattered with many different wildflowers including pink thrift, and in autumn, when the bushes are full of birds such as pipits, warblers and buntings.
The route is described as “challenging” by the National Trust. There are some slopes and steps, following a stony cliff path with a height gain of 220 metres.
Kynance Cove and Lizard Point are both considered among the UK’s best beaches, with white sand, turquoise sea, and black rock stacks.
Lizard Point is the most southerly part of the British mainland, infamous as a historic site for shipwrecks. Kynance Cove is full of low tide caves and islands to explore when not cut off by the tide.
There are many sights to enjoy including the lighthouse and lifeboat station, the Marconi Wireless Museum and an ancient mass grave underfoot. Various scenes in the Poldark series were filmed at Gunwalloe and Lizard Point.
Close to the lighthouse is the Lion’s Den, a 35-metre-deep hole created when a sea cave roof collapsed. Originally only 15 metres deep, 180 years of erosion through the sea, wind and rain has enlarged it.
A must-see is just beyond Polpear Cove, where walkers can spot seals and choughs. Seals often swim in the shallow waters while choughs, a member of the crow family rooted in Cornish culture, do tumbling displays overhead.
Lizard, Britain’s most southerly village, was included in the Telegraph’s list of the 30 greatest villages in the UK, alongside Ombersley in Worcestershire and Aberffraw in Anglesey.
The village is said to be the perfect place to “escape the tourist horde and get a sense of Cornish tradition and community” and is “full of small pleasures and treasures” like winding lanes, lined with thatched cottages and 1930s bungalows that lead to clifftop panoramas.