The lead mines on Pentire Point now form a National Trust car park near Pentire Farm. There were mines producing lead, antimony and silver here for around 400 years, with the production finally stopping at the Pentire mine in 1857 and the Pentireglaze mine in 1875. The ore cerrusite (lead carbonate) can contain over 75% lead and is often found in considerable quantities. Between 1850 and 1875, the Pentireglaze mine produced nearly 1000 tons of lead ore and over 19,000 ounces of silver.
On the way up the hill, don't forget to stop and look back as there is a great view. Rough Tor (left) and Brown Willy can be seen in the distance.
Red campion is also known as "red catchfly". The flowers are an important nectar source for larger pollinating insects including butterflies, bees and hoverflies. Much smaller flies drawn to the nectar can become stuck in the froth on the stigmas of the female flowers but this is not intentional by the plant (it doesn't eat them).
Stonechats are robin-sized birds with a black head and orange breast that are common along the Cornish coast all year round.
The name "stonechat" comes from the sound of their call which resembles stones being knocked together.
To get 360 degree panoramic views of the coastline, you can take a short diversion along the path on the right to the top of Com Head. On your left is the Rumps headland with The Mouls islet. To your right is Doyden Point at Port Quin. Behind you is the Camel Estuary; the headland with the daymark is Stepper Point.
Large daisy-like flowers on the coast are likely to be oxeye daisies, also known as the dog daisy or moon daisy - the latter is said to be because they are so bright that they appear to glow in the evening. The flowers of oxeye daisies are edible and can be used in salads or deserts. The flower buds can also be pickled in vinegar and spices and used like capers.
As you walk along the coast, you'll likely see a number of gulls gliding along the cliff edges. The large ones, with black feathers all along their back and a red mark on their bill, are Greater Black-backed Gulls.
The Greater Black-backed Gull is the largest member of the gull family and a bird of formidable size, with a wingspan of nearly 6ft. Unlike other gulls, the Greater Black-backed Gull is highly predatory. Young birds are a significant portion of its diet and it tends to live amongst other seabirds where it can eat the neighbours. It has also been known to swallow whole rabbits and even eat young lambs. It often steals food from other seabirds using its large size to intimidate them into dropping it, and consequently it is sometimes referred to as a pirate.
About a mile out into the bay on your right, lies the wreck of the SS Sphene.
The SS Sphene was a steam-powered coal coaster that sank in Port Isaac Bay in 1946 after hitting the reef around The Mouls in bad weather. The remains of the ship now rests on the sandy seabed in 22 metres of water. At the start of the 21st century, the wreck was snagged by a trawler which ripped off the winch and foredeck. Despite this and some collapse of the midships due to corrosion over the decades, the wreck is still fairly intact and popular with divers as it hosts a lot of marine life.
The twin-headed promontory known as The Rumps is formed from hard basaltic rock and projects north into the Atlantic Ocean. Its two headlands lie east-to-west: The Mouls lies off the eastern headland; the western headland is named Rumps Point.
The name in Cornish is Din Pentir, meaning "fort at Pentire". Three ramparts (banks and ditches) span the narrowest part of the promontory. These date from the late Iron Age and were once topped by wooden palisades.
The island off The Rumps headland on the Western side of Port Isaac Bay is called The Mouls. It is the protruding part of a large surrounding reef which rises from the sea bed some 30 metres below the surface. At mid-tide, strong currents rush through this shallow channel between The Rumps and The Mouls which are often visible on the surface. The Mouls is also referred to as Puffin Island as it is one of the last remaining breeding places for Atlantic puffins on the coast. Other seabirds including gannets also breed here.
The Puffin population in Cornwall has declined dramatically from a population of many thousands at the start of the 20th century to around 30 birds by the year 2000. Puffins are long-lived birds that only produce one egg per year so anything which quickly kills off a lot of the adults has a catastrophic effect on the population. Their demise is likely to be due to lack of food (in particular sandeels) though it's not completely clear how much of this is due to overfishing (and associated damage to the marine habitat by e.g. beam trawlers) and how much is due to the timing of plankton blooms being affected by climate change (resulting in lack of sandeel food).
The name "thrift" has been suggested to arise from the plant's tufted leaves being economical with water in the windy locations where it is found. It's common all along the Cornish coast and in April-June produces pale pink flowers, hence its other common name: "Sea Pink". The plant grows in dense circular mats which together with its covering of pink flowers gives rise to another less common name: "Ladies' Cushions".
Ocean sunfish can sometimes be seen on hot summer days basking on the surface, with their fin flapping out of the water as they lie on their side sunbathing. They are extremely weird-looking fish, resembling a large round dinner plate with no real tail, just two large fins at the top and bottom and two smaller ones on the sides (doing the flapping). The average weight of a full grown adult sunfish is a tonne - the largest known bony fish, which is particularly impressive on a diet principally of jellyfish.
The reefs around the headland provide a habitat for lobsters and crabs. Buoys and flags are likely to mark strings of pots.
Crabs and lobsters can re-grow lost legs and claws, and will even cut off their own leg or claw if damaged so that a new one can regrow. This has lead to one method of fishing, which is intended to be sustainable, where just the claws are removed and the crab is returned to the water. However, it has been found that a significant proportion of crabs die when have been declawed, which makes the practice controversial. The survival rate is significantly improved if just one claw is removed, so it's possible that there may be a middle ground with improved sustainability.
The sea carrot is technically the same species as a wild carrot, from which the carrot was domesticated, but is shorter, stouter and more splayed-out than a wild carrot. The two converge the further north and east that you go in Britain: West Cornwall is therefore the pinnacle of sea carrot evolution.
Kestrels are primarily vole specialists. If there are a shortage of voles they will feed on smaller rodents such as mice and shrews, lizards and even on insects if larger prey are not available. Particularly in urban areas where there aren't many voles they will also take birds such as sparrows and even those as large as starlings.
From the top of the headland, you can often see gannets flying to The Mouls and sometimes diving for fish on the reefs around the island.
Gannets are the largest sea birds in the North Atlantic with a wingspan of up to 2 metres and are easily recognisable by their long white wings with black tips. Gannets can dive from up to 30 metres, achieving speeds of up to 100kph as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish much deeper than most seabirds. To achieve this they have air sacs in their face and chest, which act as cushioning when they hit the water. Also they have no external nostrils, instead they are situated inside the mouth.
Promontory forts are only found in the South West of England and are thought to be introduced from Brittany due to the strong links between the Celtic communities. Although many do contain the foundations of Iron-Age roundhouses, it is thought unlikely that the wind-beaten areas on clifftops were permanent residences. Although the initial assumption was that the ramparts were purely functional and for defence, another possibility is that the ramparts were used as a status symbol, making a statement about the power and importance of the owners. If this were the case, the locations could have been used for a range of functions including religious, social, or trade.
Because bluebells spread very slowly, they're considered to be an indicator of ancient woodland sites. In areas where trees are not very old, the fact there are bluebells around can indicate that there has been a wood on a site for a very long time. Even if there are no trees there at all, bluebells tell us that there was woodland there some time in the past. The bluebells along the coast are a relic of the gnarled oak woodland that used to grow here before it was cleared for grazing. There is still a patch of the ancient oak woodland left along the coast at Dizzard.
The name "Pentire" is common on the coast for the simple reason that it means "headland": in Cornish pen means head or top and tir means land. Some Anglicised names such as "Pentire Point" (i.e. Headland Point) are somewhat tautological.
This headland is a good place to spot dolphins on their way in or out from the Camel Estuary.
Both Common Dolphins and Bottle-nosed Dolphins are quite frequently encountered off Cornwall. Bottle-nosed Dolphins are the species found in marine parks and are the saloon car of the dolphin world: quite large (adults are 7-12ft long), plain grey and tend to cruise at fairly low speeds though they can do short bursts of over 30km/h. Common Dolphins are their sports car cousins: a little smaller (adults are 6-8ft long) with a flashy hourglass-shaped "go faster" stripe of gold at the front and light grey at the back and can swim up to 60km/h. The considerable intelligence of dolphins includes the ability to learn new behaviours from each other and cooperate with other dolphins or even human fishermen to catch fish.
To your right is a plaque entitled "For the Fallen". The poet Laurence Binyon wrote "For the Fallen" in 1914 while sitting on the cliffs here between Pentire Point and The Rumps. The stone plaque was erected at the spot in 2001 to commemorate this and quotes the stanza popularly known as The Ode.
The middle of the three islands around the Camel Estuary, which is almost exactly 1km offshore from Pentire Point, is called Newland and is home to seabirds such as cormorants and shags. The reef which surrounds the island contains some large gullies over 10 metres deep and some Pink Sea Fans several metres in height.
In Cornish, glas or glaze means a grey-greeny-blue colour. "Grey-green headland" could well refer to the colour of the slate along this section of the coast.
In 1843, the brig known as Hope, from Fishguard, was laden with copper ore and got into distress in a gale off Port Isaac Bay. Fires were lit in Port Isaac to guide the ship in, but it's thought the crew attempted to make a run for the more sheltered estuary at Padstow. They reached Hayle Bay at the entrance to the estuary, but here the ship was driven against the shore at Pentireglaze and all seven crew drowned.
Another ship of the same unfortunate name was wrecked off the Cornish coast in 1887. A floating corked bottle was found near the shore of St Just Bar in Falmouth Harbour which contained the following message:
"To who picks this bottle up out of the deep sea can say it is from a shipwrecks crew. I am, myself, Capt. Two Bars, of the lost schooner, and put it in the paper to let my wife know as I am drowned; God bless all my children and my dear wife, and I will meet them in Heaven. God love them. The crew is G. Smith, J. Brown, G. Emery, J. Russel, and C. Hucker. - 1st January 1887, schooner 'Hope, 'from England."
You might have noticed that Hayle Bay is marked on maps as not at Hayle near St Ives but at Polzeath. Although this might look like the cartographer had a prior engagement with local scrumpy, there is another explanation: Heyl is Cornish for "Estuary". Further up the River Camel at Wadebridge is Egloshayle, which translates to something along the lines of "church by the estuary".
The name Polzeath comes from the Cornish words for "dry" and for "pool/harbour", perhaps because there is a beach at all stages of the tide. Down the left side of the beach, there are some good rockpools at low tide. The rest of the beach is very flat and sandy, which can make for some long rides (and paddles!) if you are surfing. This also means that in the shallows, the waves are small which makes it safer for small children to paddle or surf than some of the steeper beaches further north. The beach is patrolled by lifeguards and there is usually a separately flagged Malibu area to avoid surfers mowing down swimmers.
The tide goes out and comes in a long way so bear that in mind to avoid floating picnics. In the event of such a catastrophe or for those more inclined, there are a number of cafés around the beach and even a grocery shop. There is often an ice cream van on the beach in the summer, so parents may want to be armed with change to avoid diplomatic incidents.
Crows have a vocabulary of different calls with specific meanings and these can be varied to convey emotion like a human tone of voice.
The sounds that crows make have also been found to vary with location rather like regional accents in humans. When a crow moves into a new area, it mimics the calls of the most dominant flock members to fit in with its peer group.
The National Trust is the largest owner of farms in the UK. It has around 2,000 tenants and over 600,000 acres of land. It has been calculated that 43% of all the rainwater in England and Wales drains through National Trust land.
Lead was one of the earliest metals discovered by the human race and was already in use by the start of the Bronze Age - in fact part of the "Stone Age" probably should be called the "Lead Age". Not only was it abundant and relatively easy to extract, it was extremely versatile, being easily molten, moulded and was corrosion resistant.
The cliffs between The Rumps and Pentire Point are made from pillow lava.
Pillow lavas are formed underwater, typically under the ocean. When the molten magma is extruded into the water, its surface is quickly cooled forming a skin. The lava continues to be pushed out underneath the skin, inflating the skin into a pillow shape. Eventually an edge of the pillow bursts and a new pillow starts to form.
Wild thyme grows along the coast and flowers from June to September with tiny pink flowers. During mediaeval times, the plant was a symbol of bravery, possibly due to derivation from the Greek word thumos, meaning anger or spiritedness. An embroidered motif of a bee on a sprig of thyme is said to have been given by mediaeval ladies to their favoured knight.
Coastal land management including removal of excess gorse and grazing to keep taller plants in trim has allowed wild thyme to become more widespread as well as the Cornish chough. Wild thyme is a nectar source for many bees and butterflies and the food plant for young caterpillars of the large blue butterfly.
The red campion produces a blaze of pink flowers along hedgerows in the spring with the most intense flowering period occurring between late April and the end of June. A scattering of flowers continue throughout the rest of the summer. In the mild Cornish climate, a few plants can often be seen flowering during winter months.
Despite being called red campion, its flowers are most definitely pink - varying quite widely in shade from vibrant deep pinks to very pale. The colour is produced by red anthrocyanin compounds which are also responsible for red autumn leaves and red tinges on new growth in some plants as well as flower colours. In red campion, the intensity of the colour is controlled by a pair of genes and several other genes control the exact balance of anthrocyanin compounds within the petals. These are passed down the generations and so pale pink parents are likely to produce pale pink offspring.
The second part of the Latin name of red campion - dioica ("two houses") - refers to the plants' gender. Some plants are male and others are female. The male plants' flowers can be recognised from five yellow stamens sticking out from a protruding ring in the centre of the petals. The female plants' flowers have no protruding ring and instead have 5 curly white stigmas. These produce a white froth to trap pollen.
Red campion is also known as "red catchfly". The flowers are an important nectar source for larger pollinating insects including butterflies, bees and hoverflies. Much smaller flies drawn to the nectar can become stuck in the froth on the stigmas of the female flowers but this is not intentional by the plant (it doesn't eat them).
Red Campion seeds ripen between June and August. The seed capsule has teeth at the end which fold back when the seeds are ripe, allowing them to escape when it is shaken by the wind (known in botanical circles as "the pepper pot mechanism"). Each seed weighs only one thousandth of a gram, allowing it to be carried as far as possible by the wind. Nevertheless many end up falling quite close to the parent which is why red campion often occurs as a cluster of plants.
The genus name for campions - Silene from the often-drunk Greek woodland god Silenus whose name derives from the Greek word for saliva. The name is thought to be based on the froth on the female flowers used to trap pollen although its habitat preference including semi-shade within woodland also fits fairly well.
Red campion is also known by a few local names including Johnny Woods (from its habitat) and Ragged Jack (from its flower shape). Some are colour references such as Scalded Apples, and particularly in the southwest, Red Riding Hood. Cuckoo-flower is a reference to the time of year that it flowers. Another name - "Batchelors' buttons" - suggests it was once worn as a buttonhole by young men.
The roots of red campion contain saponins (soapy compounds) which protect the plants against microbes and fungi. These compounds make it easier for large molecules such as proteins to enter cell membranes. This has the potential to increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy against cancer by allowing immunotoxins to enter the cancer cells more easily.
The small blue pom-pom-like flowers have common names which include blue bonnets, blue buttons, blue daisy and Iron Flower but it is best known as sheep's bit. The name is said to originate because sheep enjoy eating it. Confusingly, it is sometimes known as "sheeps bit scabious", yet it is not at all closely related to the group of plants normally known as "scabious".
Sheep's bit flowers are rich in nectar and are a favourite with bees and butterflies. The flowers are highly reflective to ultraviolet which is thought helps to attract insects. The reason that insects can see UV but we can't is that insects' eyes have colour receptors that are tuned to different wavelengths than ours but also the lens of the human eye blocks UV light.
Betony is a grassland herb, common on the coast, with pretty purple anthers that stick out from the plant. The name is derived from the ancient Celtic words bew (meaning head) and ton (meaning good) as it was used as a cure for headaches. From Roman times onward, it was believed to be a cure for a number of things (the Romans listed 47!) including drunkenness. Even as late as the 1800s, Richard E. Banks stated that you should "Eat betony or the powder thereof and you cannot be drunken that day" and John Gerard (1597) said that "It maketh a man to pisse well". Betony was also used to ward away evil spirits (hence it is planted in a number of churchyards) and also to make a dark yellow dye for wool.
The Birdsfoot Trefoil has yellow flowers tinged with red that look like little slippers and appear in small clusters. They are followed by seed pods that look distinctly like bird's feet or claws. Common names referring to the flowers include "Butter and Eggs", "Eggs and Bacon" and "Hen and Chickens", and to the seed pods, the delightful "Granny's Toenails".
It is a member of the pea family and is poisonous to humans (containing glycosides of cyanide) but not to grazing animals and can be grown as a fodder plant. It is the larval food plant of many butterflies and moths including the common blue and silver-studded blue, and an important nectar plant for many bumblebee species.
The little yellow flowers with four petals all over the moor in July are tormentil (Potentilla erecta). Its common names include Bloodroot and Flesh and Blood because roots yield a red dye which is still used as an ingredient for artists' colours (tormentil red). The roots also have very a high tannin content and have even been used to tan leather. Extracts from the plant have been widely used in folk medicine and is it still used as a remedy for diarrhoea and as a lotion for skin sores.
As a wave approaches the beach, the bottom of the wave (which extends as far below the water as the crest does above the surface) starts to get close to the seabed and this begins to slow the wave down. As it slows down, its energy is transferred into increased height and the result is more closely-spaced, taller waves. The bottom of the wave now extends even closer to the seabed and is slowed even more. Eventually, the top of the wave outruns the bottom and the wave breaks. More sudden changes to depth allow the wave to get taller and steeper before it has time to break which is why "reef breaks" attract surfers.
In late June and July, lady's bedstraw produces clusters of tiny pale yellow scented flowers. The plant has long, thin stems with a star of very narrow leaves at intervals along the stems, a bit like rosemary, or its relative, goosegrass, but is softer than either.
The name has arisen from its use to stuff mattresses as the scent was pleasant and also repels fleas. In Scandinavia, the plant was used as a sedative during childbirth. The plant was also used to produce red and yellow dyes. The light orange colour of Double Gloucester cheese originates from this. The flowers were used in place of renin to coagulate milk but no records remain for the method of how to do this.
Ragwort is fairly easy to recognise as a relatively tall plant with yellow flowers standing above surrounding grass.
Ragwort has gained a bad reputation as when consumed in large quantities over a period of time by grazing animals such as horses, compounds in ragwort can cause irreversible liver damage. However, the plant is very bitter and therefore grazing animals generally avoid it unless there is absolutely nothing else to eat. It poses much more danger in hay because it loses its bitter taste when dried.
The leaves of ragwort have an unpleasant smell and so common names include stinking willy, stinking nanny and mare's fart.
Ragwort was rated in the top 10 nectar-producing plants in a survey for pollinating insects on UK agricultural land. The plant has also become known as "Benyon's Delight" following Facebook comments describing it as a "vile poisonous weed" by Richard Benyon, the then government minister responsible for biodiversity.
The Sea Campion flowers from June to August and can be recognised by the white petals emerging from the end of a distinctive inflated envelope. Their grey-green leaves are fleshy, which protect them from drying out in salt-laden winds.
According to folklore, to pick a Sea Campion was to invite death. This might be something to do with the precipitous locations in which they grow! Consequently another name for the plant is "dead man's bells".
The carpets of tiny blue flowers on the coast during April and May are the appropriately-named spring squill, which up close is a star-shaped pale blue flower with a dark blue stamen. They achieve their early flowering by storing energy over the winter in a bulb so they can be the first flowers out on the cliffs before they become overshadowed by larger plants. They thrive in locations which are beaten with wind and salt-laden spray which they are able to tolerate but other plants, which might otherwise out-compete them, cannot.
A number of lead mines were located around Rock and Polzeath. As well as the big one on Pentire Point, there were a number of smaller mines including one at Porthilly and one within the dunes where St Enodoc golf course is now located. An incident in one of these is reported in The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times of 19 Sept 1874:
Mr Thomas Cock, draper, &c, Rock, St Minver had a narrow escape from death on Saturday last. Whilst superintending the removal of the woodwork of a mine shaft, the ground, chiefly sand, gave way, burying him up to the chin, and despite all the efforts made it was six or seven hours from the time of the accident until he was dug out and brought to the surface, men having to be lowered and suspended by ropes to extricate him.
The lead ore found in Cornwall is a form of lead sulphide known as galena which often contains an appreciable amount of silver. This was first smelted to produce "argentiferous lead" and then the silver was separated by a process known as "cupellation". The molten alloy of the 2 metals was placed in an oxygen rich furnace which caused the lead, but not the silver, to oxidise. The lead oxide was then absorbed into a calcium-rich material such as the ash from bones or seashells, leaving the liquid metal silver on the surface of the "cake". The lead oxide could later be converted back into lead by smelting it with charcoal.
At high tide, Pentireglaze Haven is a small, sandy beach. As the tide goes out, it merges with Polzeath to a large stretch of sand. The beach is a letterbox shape, enclosed by the headland to the north and by the rocky platform of New Polzeath to the south so it's a little more sheltered than Polzeath but still faces west into the surf.
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