The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Walking west Cornwall

It scarcely seems possible, but it has been more than two years since I spent an enjoyable month traipsing around Cornwall. I was at first skeptical of writing another blog post as I had done two already that I thought must have encompassed all that Cornwall had to offer. But of course that’s not true; in reviewing my photos, I realized that west Cornwall, bounded roughly by St Ives and Penzance to the east, has its own distinctive look and feel. For this post I completed a series of day hikes: some loop hikes that incorporated both coastal and inland portions, and some simply point to point walks along the South West Coast Path. For the latter the convenient Cornwall bus system helped immeasurably. Using my Ordnance Survey (OS) app — with premium subscription — I was able to plot out these custom hikes, download the maps, and follow them with the GPS function on my phone. I used an OS guide book, Cornwall Outstanding Circular Walks, for ideas. Though only four years old, sadly it isn’t currently available from either Amazon or AbeBooks.

West Cornwall, Google Earth. The Yellow pins show some of places mentioned in the photos. The photos roughly follow an anti-clockwise loop, although in reality the hikes had no such order.

Pendeen loop from Botallack: 8.5 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. Fantastic views, old mines, and a neolithic dolmen high on the moors. What’s not to like about this hike?

The Neolithic Chûn Quoit. This dolmen, from about 2400 BC, is one of the best preserved in Cornwall, never having its capstone resettled.
A shaggy-looking Highland Bull along the Southwest Coast Path (SWCP) near Morvah. He seemed very chill. Perhaps he was unable to see me walk by?
Picturesque Portheras Cove, east of Pendeen Watch. I had the small beach to myself this morning.
The Old Count House (a mine’s administrative building) and flowers, perched behind and above the lighthouse, Pendeen Watch. The fog this day reminded me of coastal California.
An engine house at the Levant Mine. Copper and tin ores were mined more than a mile out from beneath the sea bed.

Lands End loop from Sennen Cove: 6.5 miles and 1000 ft elevation gain. This short hike takes in the most westerly point in mainland England.

A view towards Lands End from the north. My walk started at Sennen Cove, which boasts the longest beach in West Penwith. The Lands End hotel is just visible. It seemed mostly empty.
A natural arch south of Lands End. Yes, it was another misty day!
Stunning heather (Calluna vulgaris) in the mist near Nanjizal.
Detail of wood betony (Stachys officinalis). Despite the late season, I did see a variety of wild flowers on my walks.
Four seals “bottling.” They can sleep for hours floating with little more than their nostrils above water.
A rock formation seen at low tide at Nanjizal beach
Kelp on Nanjizal beach at low tide
Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)

SWCP from Porthcurno to Penzance: 10.5 miles and 1750 ft elevation gain. A one-way bus fare took me to the start, a popular beach; my apartment in Penzance greeted me five hours later at the end of this longish walk.

Fishing boats in the mist, Penberth Cove
Spider and web detail. The water droplets looked like strings of pearls on this damp morning.
Lush woodland in the St Loy valley
Allotments (community gardens) with a view, Mousehole.
Newlyn Harbor, ebb tide. This village is an important fishing port, just to the west of Penzance.

SWCP from Marazion to Praa Sands: 6.75 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. The village of Marazion is 2 miles east of Penzance with the tidal island of St Michael’s Mount a half mile offshore in Mounts Bay.

St Michael’s Mount. Currently the castle and gardens are open only about four hours a day near low tide when you can walk cross the causeway.
Perran Sands and St Michael’s Mount vista
Cudden Point and kestrel. The high winds this day didn’t seem to bother these hardy little raptors at all.
Bessy’s Cove. To me it looks straight out of Poldark.
Praa Sands. Even the hardy English were not in much evidence on this blustery day.

Lizard Point loop: 7.75 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. An interesting hike to the most southerly point of mainland England. I did it clockwise to reach the popular Kynance Cove beach before it got too crowded.

View with Sea Aster (Aster tripolium) along Kynance Cliff
Kynance Cove. Everyone seems to be observing social distancing, though of course it was only 10 AM!
St Grada and Holy Cross. This out of the way church was a great lunch stop.
View from Cadgwith of cargo ships and tankers standing in to Falmouth
A fishing boat off Church Cove. It was a sunny and tranquil day, an anomaly in West Cornwall.
Lizard lighthouse with Montbretia (Crocosmia crocosmiiflora) wild flowers. When the fog horn was decommissioned in 1998, replaced with an automatic electronic fog signal, it was the last compressed-air fog signal in use in the UK. The four panel rotating optic, visible for up to 50 miles, is still used to this day.
Vellan Drang, Lizard Point. These rocks mark the southern-most point in England aside from the Isles of Skilly. The building to the right of course sells coffee, cakes, and tourist tat.

And finally one photo from my frequent coastal walks right out of Penzance, this taken shortly after Storm Ellen came through.

St Michael’s Way, Penzance. The tide is half way out, but you couldn’t tell it from this photo.

As I write this blog I am back in Hastings after the next named storm of the season has just passed. Next week I fly to Venice, followed by a two hour drive to Trentino. I have an AirBnb in a smallfor 4 weeks in a small town in the Pale di San Martino Nature Park, an area of the southern Dolomites that I have yet to explore. The flight from Heathrow will be my first since March and should be an interesting experience. Fortunately, Italy seems to be currently doing alright after a rough time earlier in the pandemic.

The Vagabond Hiker

Lakeland Lockdown, Part 2:

The Northern Lakes

Well, this past month has revealed another side of England’s Lake District, namely, why it is so green. The clement weather of late May and much of June simply disappeared into the mist – quite literally. Faced with what seemed unending days of rain and heavy clouds, I largely abandoned my photographic endeavors. On most of the less damp days, I did manage to hike around the nearby woods and fells, though usually only with my camera phone, a poor substitute for the Panasonic Lumix in capturing the details of this amazing landscape. On the plus side, I was able to explore more deeply the local area just north of the market town of Keswick, usually without the encumbrance of an automobile or the jostling crowds present on the more popular routes. AND I did manage to hike to the summit of Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England, on my last day.

A view from Dodd Woods of Crookelty Farm (right, midground) where I was staying, with Keswick and Derwent Water in the background. Dodd Woods – more accurately described as a tree plantation – was right out my back door and provided some great local exercise hikes to the 500m summit from the valley’s elevation of 90m.
Bell Heather (Erica cinerea) and view towards Keswick from the start of the ascent of Skiddaw, my local fell.
A “view” of Skiddaw from Carl Side as the mist descends
Skiddaw (931m) vista with summit cairn. It is the third highest of the three proper English Munros – peaks over 3000 ft with a 500 ft prominence. (Sca Fell, Ill Crag, and Broad Crag, while greater than 3000 ft, do not have sufficient prominence to be considered Munros).
Keswick and Derwent Water from Lonscale Fell. On this relatively sunny day I did a loop hike from Skiddaw north to Lonscale Fell.
Hall’s Fell Ridge on Blencathra, another nearby fell, provided a bit of scrambling in parts
Summit view from Helvellyn with a cloud layer just above. At 950m, Helvellyn is the second highest English Munro, and conveniently located only a few miles south of Keswick.
Crookelty annex, a converted hay loft where I stayed for 4 weeks. The burbling of adjacent Mill Beck was cathartic and bird feeders attracted goldfinches and a great spotted woodpecker, among others. I’m not sure how much electricity the solar panels provided.
A view west from Crookelty Farm. The cows were a new addition during my stay.
Grains Gill and Stockley Bridge seen in the early morning as I began the ascent of Scafell Pike from Seathwaite in Borrowdale. Altogether it was a great loop hike with about 3200 ft elevation gain over a bit more than 4 miles ascent.
Skafell Pike and Sca Fell (left) from Ill Crag. If you look closely, you can just make out the stone summit shelter on Scafell Pike.
WWI dedication on the summit of Scafell Pike (978m), the high point in England. The mountain was donated to the nation by the local aristo after the war.
A view from near the summit of Scafell Pike on my descent route towards Borrowdale. Styhead Tarn and Derwent Water in the distance may be seen, with Great Gable the peak on the left.
Peering down an unnamed gill from near the Corridor Route on my descent of Scafell Pike.

Ironically the best weather of the month was on my climb of Scafell Pike, my last full day in Keswick. Now back in Hastings, on Monday I leave for Penzance in the far west of Cornwall. I am still waiting confirmation as to whether my autumn trips to Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, and Madagascar will go forward. Sadly, though, the Tour du Mont Blanc trek in September with my Utah friends was cancelled as for obvious reasons anyone traveling from the US must quarantine for 14 days.

Stay tuned for next month’s blog from Cornwall and where ever you may be, keep hiking.

The Vagabond Hiker

Lakeland Lockdown, Part 1:

The Southern Lake District

More than two years ago (it scarcely seems so long!) I wrote a short blog post based on nine days spent on the Eastern edge of England’s Lake District, unsure of when or even whether I would return to explore in more depth this amazing area. Last month, with no end in sight to the Lockdown and Hastings having lost its interest, I followed in the footsteps of Melville’s Ishmael:

Some years ago–never mind how long precisely–having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world

Certainly the Lake District can be considered one of the watery parts of the world. For the past 5+ weeks I have rambled over much of the more southerly portion from my base on Lake Windermere, exploring its fells and dales. This coming month — once the rains subside — I will continue my explorations of the northerly portion from my new base in Keswick.

During these trying times of armchair travels, enjoy with me some of this amazing scenery. . .

Morning mist in Kentmere Valley. I did two hikes from Kentmere, this one circling the valley, and a second mainly up on the fells.
A black-faced lamb in Kentmere Valley. Overgrazing has degraded much of the Lake District. Indeed, George Monbiot called it a “sheepwrecked” landscape.
Dry stone walls and bluebells in Kentmere Valley
A wooden bridge across Easedale Beck, virtually William Wordsworth’s back yard when he lived in Grasmere!
Helm Crag from Easedale
Grasmere from Helm Crag. In late May I did the first of several horseshoe hikes here.
Waterfalls along the Sour Milk Gill, heading up to Easedale Tarn and High Raise, the second of two hikes from Grasmere/Easedale
Easedale Tarn, on my way to High Raise
Codale Tarn vista from the High Raise loop
Atmospheric view descending from High Raise (762m, 2500ft)
Columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris), one of my faves
Vista of Lake Windermere from Brant Fell, a 10 minute walk from my apartment. At more than 10 miles long, Windermere is the largest lake in England.
Home Farm Pond along the Dales Way near Brant Fell. My weekly local 5 mile loop hike passed this picturesque spot.
Clouds and Windermere from School Knott. This high point was about 2 miles from my apartment.
Wood Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum)
High Green, Troutbeck. Troutbeck village was only a few minutes’ drive from my apartment. I walked a couple variants of the Wansfell Pike loop from here.
Perhaps Tree-mallow (Malva arborea)
Rydal Mount, Wordsworth’s house from 1813 until his death in 1850. It was a convenient starting point for several hikes I did, ranging from an easy circumambulation of Rydal Water and Grasmere to the iconic Fairfield Horseshoe.
Rydal Water (l) and Grasmere (the lake, not the village!), from the climb up above Rydal Mount and then traversing two minor peaks known as Sour Howes and Sallows.
Cotton grass (Eriophorum vaginatum)
A view towards St Sunday Crag from Fairfield. The Fairfield is a classic 10 mile horseshoe route popular with both hill walkers and fell runners.
The Vagabond Hiker on top of St Sunday Crag (841m). This extension was a bit more than I had bargained for, with my knees paying the price the next day.
Steps End, Rydal. I simply love the palette of greens here on a sunny day.
Grasmere
A gorgeous Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea) along Grasmere
Dove Cottage, Grasmere, where Willam Wordsworth wrote many of his best-known poems.
Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus)
Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea). Beautiful, but the entire plant is toxic.
Windermere from Loughrigg Fell, just west of the outdoor mecca of Ambleside
Coniston Old Man from Walna Scar Rd, the trailhead I used for this iconic traverse
Coniston Old Man summit vista showing the path down to Low Water
Coniston Water from the Old Man summit. Ruskin’s house is along there somewhere. . .
Malodorous Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)
Old (l) and New Dudgeon Gill (r) Hotels and the Langdale Fells seen from Side Pike. Some of the most rugged topography in the southern Lakes, I hiked here four different days.
Oxendale Beck, Langdale. A beck is a stream through a valley whereas a Gill (from the Norse Ghyll) is a stream cascading down a ravine.
The Langdale Pikes and Valley from the Crinkle Crags
Harrison Stickle. The red line denotes my route, the highlight of a day of scrambling in Langdale.
Pavey Ark and Stickle Tarn. Pavey Ark features several climbing routes and a popular, easy scramble known as Jake’s Rake.
“The Band, ” heading up on the traverse of Bow Fell (r), partially obscured by clouds
Bow Fell summit block and black lamb
The Vagabond Hiker on Bow Fell summit (902m). Scafell Pike, the highest point in England, is just above my right knee.
My lunch view on the Bow Fell descent showing the Pike of Stickle (the clear protuberance). Some challenging scrambles on the Pike of Stickle remain for a future endeavor.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Lakeland Adventures next month.

Mountain Light,

The Vagabond Hiker

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