Land's End
Land's End is only the end of the land if you stand in the right place. Cornwall's famous cliff is a signpost, a legend about a drowned kingdom and 280 million years of granite.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- Far west Cornwall, on the Penwith peninsula near Sennen
- Cornish name
- Penn an Wlas
- Rock
- Granite, around 280 million years old
- Cliff height
- Roughly 60 metres above the Atlantic
- Nearest lighthouse
- Longships, about a mile offshore, built 1873
- Distance to John o' Groats
- About 874 miles by the usual road route
- Distance to the Isles of Scilly
- Around 28 miles south-west
- Famous for
- The photo-op signpost and the start of the End to End journey
The most photographed signpost in Cornwall
Most people come to Land's End for one thing: to stand beside a signpost with their own home town written on it. The sign can be personalised with a place name and a mileage, and it has framed millions of holiday photographs and charity-challenge finishes and starts. The headland itself does the rest. Beyond the last field the land drops to the sea, with nothing in front of you but the Atlantic. The next landfall in that direction is North America. The sign points the other way too. Land's End is one end of Britain's classic long-distance journey, with John o' Groats in the far north of Scotland at the other. The usual road route is about 874 miles, and walkers, cyclists, runners and a fair few people on tractors and milk floats have taken it on. Land's End to John o' Groats is such a fixture of British stunts that it has its own shorthand: the End to End.
The kingdom that supposedly sank
Cornish legend says the sea west of Land's End was once a country called Lyonesse. It had 140 churches, fertile fields and a line of kings, until a single night's flood swallowed it whole. Fishermen are supposed to have hauled up church bells and window frames in their nets. The Trevelyan family of Cornwall tell of an ancestor who escaped the flood on a galloping horse, which is why a horse features in the family's story. The legend is mostly romance, but it is not pulled from nowhere. Sea levels have risen since the last Ice Age, and the Isles of Scilly were once joined into a much larger island. Low-lying land really did vanish beneath the waves, just far more slowly than the story says.
Lighthouses on rocks that eat ships
Look out to sea on a clear day and you will spot Longships Lighthouse, standing on a reef about a mile from the cliffs. The present granite tower dates from 1873 and replaced a smaller one from 1795. Its job is to warn ships off one of the most dangerous stretches of water in Britain. Farther out is Wolf Rock, which has its own lighthouse, and beyond that the dangerous Seven Stones reef. In March 1967 the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran onto the Seven Stones with around 120,000 tonnes of crude oil aboard. It was among the first major supertanker disasters, and the oil spread onto Cornish beaches. So the grand view from Land's End has a darker side. This coast has always been a graveyard for ships.
What to look for on the cliffs
The headland is made of granite, formed from magma that cooled deep underground about 280 million years ago. Waves have carved it into stacks, arches and ledges. Offshore stand the rock formations known as the Armed Knight and the Irish Lady, which look like sentinels in the surf. The cliff top is rich in wildlife. Seabirds ride the updraughts, and grey seals are sometimes seen bobbing below. In summer the clifftop is bright with thrift, heather and gorse. On a very clear day, the Isles of Scilly can be seen as a low line on the horizon, about 28 miles away. The weather matters as much as the scenery here. Gales hit this exposed corner head-on, and fog can wipe out the view in minutes, which is why the Longships needed a lighthouse.
Beyond the signpost
The best of Land's End is often found by walking away from it. The South West Coast Path runs past in both directions. North lies Sennen Cove, with its sandy beach and lifeboat station, and farther along is Cape Cornwall, a dramatic headland topped by an old mine chimney. South along the coast is the Minack Theatre, carved into the cliff above a turquoise bay. Together, they show why this tip of Cornwall has drawn artists, walkers and wreck-watchers for generations. For the full effect, go at sunset. The light turns the granite gold, the Longships lamp comes on, and for a moment the end of the land feels like exactly that.
Test yourself
Play the UK quizMore to see nearby
Tintagel Castle
Published
Tintagel's castle was built by a king's brother in the 1230s to cash in on a legend, and its walls are now cut off from the mainland by a bridge with a gap in the middle.
The Eden Project
Published
A Cornish clay pit so barren it was written off as a wasteland now holds the largest indoor rainforest in the world, under a roof lighter than the air inside it.