Carn Du in Mousehole

Carn Du house and Carn Du cottage are next to one another at the top of Raginnis Hill in southwest Cornwall. A quarter of a mile down a steep road to the left, as you look out to sea, is a natural sandy harbour in the middle of Mousehole. Along the coast road beyond Mousehole are Newlyn and Penzance.

From Carn Du you can look out beyond Penzance to St Michael’s Mount, where, in 1047, Edward the Confessor established a chapel which stands on an island in Mount’s Bay.

The coastline from Mousehole

The coastline is gentle here and becomes more rugged in its wild nature as you walk west along the cliffs of the coast path, the light ever-changing on the ocean below. Pass Lamorna Cove, Porthchapel, Land’s End and beyond. With its abundance of prehistoric stone monuments, this peninsula was the last part of Britain to be taken over by the Anglo-Saxons from the Celts. DH Lawrence said of it: “This Cornwall is very primaeval: great, black, jutting cliffs and rocks, like the original darkness, with a pale sea breaking in, like dawn…”

Porthcurno

At low tide, the beach at Porthcurno (15 min by car from Carn Du) stretches through the sands of Green Bay, Pedn Vounder to the massive rock formations of Logan’s Rock, a vantage point for viewing seals and visiting basking sharks.

Sennen

Beyond Land’s End is the 3-star surfing beach at Sennen. Take a day ferry or helicopter trip to the archipelago of the Scilly Isles – with its excellent restaurants and subtropical Tresco Abbey Gardens, and walk through the landscape of these islands nestling in the ocean. Play golf at St Just.