The Lizard, summary
Details:
We stayed at the friendly
Little Trevothian caravan park; grid ref 772 178. Under new ownership this year. Rodger & Anne lived opposite our very clean caravan & proved helpful (Rodger used to be a chef!) on a number of occasions. The site is small & friendly but well establish with good hedges for shelter & privacy (plenty of tent camping area too).
Originally we tried to get near Kennack Sands (so I could walk down for a pre-breakfast or post-dinner spearing session) but they were full. In hindsight though, I think Little Trevothian may have worked out better - as I only saw Wrasse & small pollock at Kennack (although a snorkeller said he saw a large mullet on the right hand side). - and it made me explore more areas.
A detailed (1:25,000)
OS map is highly recommended to check the coast (a boat is necessary to reach much of the coast here) & navigate the various narrow roads & short cuts.
[Map 103 Explorer Map, The Lizard, Falmouth & Helston].
We stayed mainly to the east coast for max. shelter, for diving viz & family kayaking.
Area Summary:
Coverack- local beach for Little Trevothian.
I only kayaked here at first - it seemed too sandy, or rod fished off the rocks; I was wrong, it offers great spear fishing & snorkelling too. Unusually well sheltered - so
a good bet for diving & kayaking in most weather conditions (like a mill pond most days). Tidal, sandy & rocky beach; the outside of the harbour walls & old lifeboat slipway are surprisingly deep & fishy.
Rod fishing is popular from the harbour walls & rocks around the head. Any state of the tide is good.
Excellent kayaking. Kayaks can be taken down the shortest set of steps by the sandiest part of the beach (in front of the paper shop). In season, park in one of the 2 car parks just before you reach the sea (or small carpark at far end of village for evening rod fishing). Pollock, mullet, big wrasse & bass.
Kennack Sands - great family beach
Flat as a mill pond one day, a small wave another day, choppy another & full on
surf on Friday (boogie boards sold out!). Probably the best family beach around. 2 shops,
extremely easy access for kayaks as the car park is right next to the beach (we never did kayak there - many others did though). Saw seals one day. Wrasse, small pollock, mullet.
Lizard Point- no diving
, 4 seals, pretty though
.
Annes Famous Pasties at the Lizard are very tasty (as were the staff, come to think of it).
Porthkerris Cove- pricey, no spearing
This seems to be a commercial beach run for diving & fishing; I think prices were £2 parking, £1 per rod, £3 to dive, ... a long itemized list of charges & rules (inc. no shooting). I can imagine the thinking that went into it but it struck me as truly
ghastly. I asked about spearing, they smiled and said "no spear fishing", I smiled and said "oh, goodbye then". We'd already passed the next venue, which was an altogether better proposition.
Porthoustock - the great secret
The gray slate beach is admittedly not the ideal family beach but I love this place. The OS Map is wrong, the quarry is in use -- when I went one evening to dive the high tide (low tide is just as good though) a big ship was tied up taking on slate gravel. This beach has a lottery funded toilet, honestly box parking donations, you park on the beach, so v.
easy access for kayaks & diving. Left side of the beach is left clear for local fishermen. Scuba is popular here - the water is deep straight off the beach (20-30ft for the most part). Rightside on low tide, Manacle point, saw the 60-80cm fish (bass?) & two smaller but decent size bass; strong current for the last section - long fins highly recommended. Didn't see much else there, just a few wrasse (one only 10 foot from the waters edge). Left side on high tide, interesting rocks & ledges, saw dozens of huge wrasse, a small edible crab &, while hiding on top of a rock, a big bass swam right by (usual routine: we looked at each other waiting for the other to flinched, I straightened my arm as much as I dare - not fully able to aim, I pulled the trigger, he shot off like a rocket). Also found 4 golf balls.
Poldhu Cove - neat little W. coast
surf beach (didn't stop or spear though)
Places we wanted to visit but didn't have time for: St. Anthony/Dennis Head, Porthallow Cove (did somebody say spearing was banned there?),
Cadgwith (check out the north coast ariel images on multimap
), Poltesco, Bass Point, Kyance Cove, the rocky headland Chynhalls Point (a mile walk from the Caravan site or by boat), & Church
Coves (nr. Lizard or nr. Poldhu Cove), Housel Bay. For those with boats or willing to walk in: Carrick Luz, the Bees & Black Head on a south facing stretch of coast looked interesting but no doubt exposed. We had a quick look at Mullion Cove but heavy seas suggested staying on the East Coast (via the chocolate factory
) - is just before the village (which is v. small); Polurrian Cove is just north.
A boat & lots of time would be the best way to explore the Lizard, we just scratched the surface.
[BTW The bass was caught on the 30 year old blue & white Edison eel.]
Re. Boats: somebody mentioned people often launch boats from St. Anthony. Coverack has a walled harbour but it is small & often full, & the slipway steep - you need the Harbour Master's permission and 3rd party insurance to launch there.