Port Quin is a tiny cluster of fisherman's cottages around a sheltered inlet in Port Isaac Bay. In the early 19th century, the settlement of Port Quin had upwards of 20 houses but was then suddenly deserted. There is a local legend that one night, a violent gale sank the entire fishing fleet, leaving 32 women widowed. The name is a corruption of the Cornish "Porth Gwynn" which means "white cove". Portwenn - the Anglicised version of this - is used as the name of the fictional village in the ITV Comedy Drama series "Doc Martin". The harbour itself was used for filming the 1970s Poldark series.
There is a cave under the ruined building beside Quay cottage with a shaft leading up from the cave that is thought to have been used by smugglers.
The tiny castellated building on Doyden Point is fittingly known as Doyden Castle. When you reach the Epphaven waymark, you can follow the track to the right that passes it to the top of the headland for views over the bay and return to the waymark to continue on the route.
On the end of Doyden Point at Port Quin, is a small castellated building known appropriately as Doyden Castle. Doyden Castle is a cliff-edge folly built in 1830 which was allegedly used for decadent gambling parties. The sheer cliff edges and (at the time) unfenced mineshafts would presumably have been more than a little hazardous for drunken revellers. It's now owned by the National Trust and let as holiday accommodation. The wine bins still remain on the lower ground floor.
The Cow and Calf are two rocks directly out from Port Quin; one rock is larger than the other - hence the name. They are the topmost part of a reef rising approximately 10 metres from the sea bed which is entirely submerged at high tide, but breaks the surface at low tide.
There were two mines at Port Quin. Near Doyden Point, there are mineshafts of Gilson's Cove Mine either side of the coast path. This was a mixed lead/silver and antimony mine from which a little copper ore was also extracted. One shaft goes down to sea level, the other deeper. Between the two shafts where the coast path runs is the remains of the platform for a horse-powered winding device, known as a whim, which was used to haul ore up from the mine. Further inland is Port Quin mine which was solely an antimony mine.
Antimony is in the same chemical group as tin, lead and mercury and was used in alloys, particularly with these metals, including solder and printing lead. Like lead and mercury, it is toxic if ingested (which wasn't known at the time), so mining it was probably not a recipe for a long life.
Dartmoor ponies, bred for hauling goods, have been recorded living on the wild and inhospitable moors since the Middle Ages. They are unsurprisingly a very hardy breed and have a lifespan of around 25 years. Over the 20th Century, their numbers declined from just over 25,000 in the 1930s to about 5,000 by the start of the 21st century when only around 800 ponies were known to be grazing the moor. Dartmoor ponies have recently found a new niche as conservation grazers. As well as on moorland, they are used by the Wildlife Trusts to graze the coast to prevent bracken and gorse taking hold.
Epphaven Cove is submerged at high tide, and is rocky until the lowest part of the tide when a sandy beach is revealed. Access involves climbing down the rock platform and negotiating the boulders at the top of the beach. At low tide, the beach merges with the adjacent beaches to form a continuous strip of sand around Lundy Bay.
Two theories have been put forward for the name "Lundy Bay".
The first is that it faces Lundy Island. This seems the less likely of the two as (unlike Morwenstow where it's very apparent) Lundy Island isn't very noticeable from this stretch of coast. Down on the beach - where the distance to the horizon is only 3 miles - Lundy Island isn't even visible.
The second theory is that the name is independently based on the Viking word for puffin island (lund = puffin + ey = island). Given Lundy Bay is close to The Mouls - which is still also known by the name Puffin Island and the occasional puffin can still be seen here - this seems more likely. Lundy Bay may have been an alternative or older name for the broader Port Quin Bay stretching out to the The Mouls before later being restricted to a specific beach. It is recorded as "Portquin Bay" on Victorian OS maps.
Lundy Bayis situated on the east side of The Rumps headland and consists of 3 small beaches. The leftmost two are sometimes known as Lundy Beach and between them there is a collapsed cave, forming an arch opening onto the beach. At high tide, the beaches are rocky, but at low tide, beautiful golden sand is revealed.
Due to the north-facing bay and steep cliffs, it's quite sheltered from a southwesterly wind. The result is that when there is a good size swell, there can be some quite clean surf here near low tide when the westerly-facing beaches are blown out. The beach slopes more steeply than many of the west-facing surf beaches, so rides tend to be short.
If there are sheep in the field and you have a dog, make sure it's securely on its lead (sheep are prone to panic and injuring themselves even if a dog is just being inquisitive). If the sheep start bleating, this means they are scared and they are liable to panic.
If there are pregnant sheep in the field, be particularly sensitive as a scare can cause a miscarriage. If there are sheep in the field with lambs, avoid approaching them closely, making loud noises or walking between a lamb and its mother, as you may provoke the mother to defend her young.
Sheep may look cute but if provoked they can cause serious injury (hence the verb "to ram"). Generally, the best plan is to walk quietly along the hedges and they will move away or ignore you.
Porteath is easily mistaken for the far more well-known Portreath but lacks the first "R". Given that it's not a million miles away from St Teath there could possibly be a connection but there's little information about it apart from that it was already established with the same name as a small hamlet with a well in Victorian times. It's more likely that the name is from the Cornish porth treth the gist of which would be along the lines of "sandy cove". This is definitely consistent with Lundy Beach (at low tide). There were several small quarries between the settlement and the beach which would have provided the stone for the cottages here and perhaps some of the neighbouring farms.
Chickens are descended from junglefowl and those in Britain came originally from India. They evolved the ability to lay large numbers of eggs to take advantage of gluts of food that occur in their native forests. It is thought they were introduced to Britain by Iron Age tribes who bred them for fighting rather than meat and cockfighting remained Britain's national sport until 1835. During the mediaeval period, more placid forms of chicken were bred that were less hazardous to farm but it wasn't until the 17th Century that chickens and eggs were farmed on a mass scale. In Britain, over 10 billion eggs are now consumed every year.
Porteath Bee Centre, on the road to Polzeath, has been open since 1970 and has grown from a hobby into a business. The Centre offers a shop to buy honey, a tea room for Cornish cream teas, candle making and bee supplies to start your own.
The name is likely to be from the Cornish Porth Treth, meaning "sandy cove" and presumably referring to nearby Lundy Bay. The name of the settlement of Portreath (with an "r") near Redruth has similar origins.
Lichens are a partnership of two different organisms: a fungus providing the "accommodation" and an alga or cyanobacterium providing the "food" through photosynthesis. The fungal partner provides a cosy, sheltered environment for the alga and tends it with mineral nutrients. However, the alga partner is more than simply an imprisoned food-slave: it is such a closely-evolved alliance that the fungus is dependant on the alga for its structure. If the fungal partner is isolated and grown on an agar plate, it forms a shapeless, infertile blob.
Once domesticated sheep had become woolly, individuals with white fleeces were selected for breeding as this was the easiest colour to dye. This was made easier by the genes giving rise to a white fleece being dominant. The recessive genes still do sometimes come together to produce a black lamb in an otherwise white flock. The expression "black sheep of the family" arises from this and its negative connotation was based on the economic undesirability of their fleeces.
The land around Port Quin was bought by National Trust in 1956. The land between Doyden Point and Trevan Point was bought in 1984 with funds from the National Trust's Project Neptune and the Cornwall Fund, completing the acquisition of a 6 mile stretch of coastline from Port Quin to Pentireglaze Haven.
Project Neptune was started by the National Trust in 1965 to purchase and protect large portions of the British coastline. By 1973 it had achieved its target of raising £2 million and 338 miles of coastline were looked-after. The project was so successful that it is still running although mainly focused on maintenance. There is still an occasional opportunity when privately-owned coastal land is sold. A particularly notable one was in 2016 when the land at Trevose Head was put up for sale and successfully purchased by the National Trust.
Wild Fennel grows in and around the car park at Port Quin.
Originally from the Mediterranean, fennel has naturalised in the UK, particularly in coastal areas and is recorded as far back as the 10th century.
The Greek word for fennel is "marathon"; the name of the sporting event originates from a battle which took place in a field of fennel.
The leaves, seeds and also flowers of the wild fennel can be used in cooking. Of these, the flowers are the most potent and also the most expensive to purchase.
Whizz half a red onion, a couple of sprigs of wild fennel leaves and a clove of garlic in a (small) food processor. Whizz in one fillet of smoked mackerel (skinned), juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt + freshly ground black pepper. Finally whizz in some cream cheese (for a paté) or crème fraîche (for a dip) a spoonful at a time until the desired consistency (thickness) is reached.
Mussels are filter feeders and their "foot" is used to generate threads which they use to anchor themselves to rocks. Mussels clump together both to create a more secure attachment to the rock and also to trap water at low tide.
Mussels are preyed on by dog whelks which dissolve a hole in their shell, through which they inject digestive enzymes which result in mussel soup. Mussels have evolved a defensive strategy whereby they lasso invading whelks with their threads and tether them to the rocks, where the whelks starve to death.
Fortunately, consumption of mussels by humans is a little less fraught with danger provided you don't harvest them between May and August: a species of plankton that is poisonous to humans can be hoovered up by the mussels in this period. Make sure you collect more mature mussels of at least 50mm in length as smaller ones are less good to eat. It's worth studying the tides to get the beach for a low spring tide as this is when you'll find the biggest, juiciest mussels. Ideally, take a bucket and bring your mussels home in clean seawater. Once harvested, soak them for a few hours somewhere cool in clean saltwater to allow them to purge any sand (don't submerge them in freshwater as this will kill them). Sort through them, tapping any that are open on a surface to see if they close shut. Discard any that remain open or any that are damaged (they have perished and are not safe to eat). Before cooking, mussels must be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed and the "beard" (threads that secure the mussel to the rock) should be removed.
There are two types of anemone that you're likely to encounter on Cornish beaches. The most common are those that look like red blobs out of the water, known as beadlet anemones; in the water they open into a crown of tentacles. The little blue beads around the edge that give them their name are fighting tentacles, used to beat up rival anemones and chase them out of their territory (they can move around on the rocks albeit very slowly). The other species is the larger, green-and-purple snakelocks anemone which has tentacles that contain a fluorescent green algae which glows under UV light (should you own a battery-powered UV lamp and be on the beach at night). Anemones are very long-lived, often reaching 60-80 years and more. They do not age and have the potential to live indefinitely if they are not eaten by predators.
Blackthorn is a spiny type of plum which is more broadly a member of the rose family. It is native to the UK and common on old farmland where blackthorn trees were planted as hedges to keep out cattle. It is still common in Cornish hedgerows today and also common on the coast as it's tolerant to salt.
Given the right conditions, a blackthorn tree can live 100 years and grow to about 20ft in height. In harsher environments such as by the coast the bushes may be as little as 2ft tall.
The name "blackthorn" is just a general reference to the dark colour of the bark, rather than anything specific to do with the thorns which are not any darker than the rest of the wood. It's primarily a comparison with hawthorn where the bark is lighter (in fact hawthorn is also known as "white thorn" despite not having white thorns). Just to confuse things further, the flowers of blackthorn are whiter than hawthorn!
In mediaeval times, blackthorn was associated with evil. This may also tie in with the English word "strife" which has Celtic origins. Straif was the name of a letter used in Celtic Ogham script and was originally the word for "sulphur". Some of the other letters in the script corresponded to tree names. In late mediaeval times, a retrospective assignment of trees to the letters in the alphabet used for Ogham that weren't already tree names became popular (sometimes known as the "tree alphabet") and blackthorn was chosen for Straif.
The expression "Blackthorn Winter" is a rural expression for a final cold snap in late March or early April when the blackthorn is in flower. It was generally used in the context of not getting too carried away (e.g. planting crops) if there was a warm week in early March as more frosts may still be yet to come.
Blackthorn wood is very tough and hard-wearing. In order to form its thorns, the tree allows the tips of the tiny stems that make up the thorns to die. The dead wood in the thorn tip is harder and therefore sharper than the living wood.
Blackthorn stems are often covered in fungi or bacteria and if a thorn punctures skin, these can sometimes cause infection. Any splinters left in the skin can also disintegrate over time and result in an immune response. If a puncture wound becomes infected, it's a good idea to get it checked-out in a minor injuries unit in case antibacterial or anti-fungal treatment is needed to prevent it escalating.
Due to blackthorn wood's toughness, it was used to make tool handles, walking sticks and as a traditional Celtic weapon for clubbing people to death! It is still regarded as the ultimate wood for making walking sticks. Once cut and trimmed, the wood needs to be dried for at least a year (often several) which allows moisture to escape and the wood to shrink and harden.
A cordial can be made from blackthorn blossom by dissolving 100g of sugar in 1 litre of warm water mixing one large handful of blossom, scaled up to produce the quantity you require.
Gorse is a legume, related to peas and like other members of the pea family it's able to get its nitrogen from the air. It's also tolerant to heavy metals in the soil and to salt. This makes it able to grow in Cornwall's harshest environments: moorland, coast and mine waste tips.
Like other members of the pea family, gorse produces its seeds in pods. The seeds are ejected with a popping sound when pods split open in hot weather. This can catapult the seeds up to five metres. The plants are able to live 30 years and survive sub-zero temperatures, the seeds can withstand fire and remain viable in the soil for 30 years.
Gorse seeds each contain a small body of ant food. The seeds also release a chemical which attracts ants from some distance away. The ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the ant food and then discard the seeds, helping them to disperse.
The seeds of common gorse are the source of the chemical used to identify people with the rare "hh" blood group. The red blood cells in the vast majority of people (in blood groups A, B, AB and O) have a material called "H substance" on their surface. It turns out that the chemical extracted from gorse binds remarkably specifically to this and cells from the "hh" blood group (that have no H substance) are left alone.
Gorse is also known (particularly in the Westcountry) as furze from the Middle English word furs. This itself is from the Old English word fyres, closely related to the Old English word for fire.
Before the Industrial Revolution, gorse was valued as a fuel for bread ovens and kilns as it burns rapidly, very hot and with little ash. It was in such demand that there were quite strict rules about how much gorse could be cut on common land.
In more recent times, due to reliance on fossil fuels, this is now out of balance and gorse has increased in rural areas which have been abandoned agriculturally.
As gorse ages, it accumulates more dead material. The spiky, springy nature of the plant even when dead means air can circulate well through the dead material and when this dries out in the summer, it substantially increases the risk of fires. As gorse seeds have evolved to withstand fire, controlled burning can be used to used to keep the gorse at a young age where uncontrolled fires are less likely.
Gorse is present as two species along the Atlantic coast and size is the easiest way to tell them apart: Common Gorse bushes are up to 10ft tall whereas Western Gorse is more of a mat - less than 1ft tall. Common Gorse flowers in spring whereas Western Gorse flowers in late summer - early autumn.
In 2005 a man had to be rescued from a 10ft deep patch of coastal gorse by helicopter. Whilst mountain biking home along the coast from a bar, with the assistance of a not insignificant amount of alcohol, he managed to catapult himself into the bushes where he remained stuck for 2 days before being found by a passer-by. She asked if he needed help, to which he replied "can you ring the RAF?".
Between the two species, some gorse is almost always in flower, hence the old country phrases: "when gorse is out of blossom, kissing's out of fashion" (which is recorded from the mid-19th century) and "when the furze is in bloom, my love's in tune" (which dates from the mid-18th century). Common gorse flowers are bright yellow. Western gorse flowers are very slightly more orange - more like the colour of the "yolk" in a Cadbury's creme egg. Also like creme eggs, gorse flowers are edible but are significantly better for use in salads and to make a tea, beer or wine.
Common gorse flowers have a coconut-like scent but rather than fresh coconut, it is reminiscent of desiccated coconut or the popular brand of surf wax, Mr Zoggs. However, not everyone experiences the smell in the same way: for some people it's very strong and for others it quite weak. One complicating factor is that Western Gorse flowers don't have any scent, so you need to be sniffing a tall gorse plant to test yourself.
Flower scents are volatile organic compounds which drift though the air and has evolved as an advertisement to pollinating insects that nectar is available. Squeezing the flowers releases these compounds onto the surface where they can evaporate and therefore intensifies the smell. Similarly the warming effect of sunlight helps the compounds to evaporate faster and so the smell is more intense on sunny days.
Gorse flower wine can be made using 5 litres of gorse flowers stripped from the stems and simmering these in 5 litres of boiling water. Once the flowers are removed, 1.3kg of sugar should be dissolved in the hot water and allowed to cool to room temperature. Then add 500g of chopped raisins and juice and zest of 2 lemons and ferment with white wine yeast and yeast nutrient. Although flowers are present year-round, they are best picked in spring (April and May) when they are most profuse and fragrant.
The purple flowers resembling a miniature pansy that you see along the footpaths from March to May are almost certainly dog violets, so-called because they are unscented (rather than scented of dog) to distinguish them from the sweet violet. The plants are able to thrive both in shade and full sun, so are found in grassland and hedgerows as well as woodland. Sweet violets prefer shade, so if you do encounter these it will most likely be in woodland, but the dog violets are more common even in this habitat.
There are actually two different species of dog violet although they can interbreed to form hybrids. The common dog violet prefers shade whilst the heath dog violet prefers sunny spots and historically this is what kept them apart as separate species, although they are both relatively tolerant of a wide range of conditions. Human activity, particularly felling of woodland, has resulted in them ending up in each others' "territory" and they can sometimes even be seen growing side-by-side. The easiest way to tell them apart is from the shape of the leaves which are heart-shaped in the common dog violet but upside-down teardrop-shaped in the case of the heath dog violet.
Waves pounding into a cave compress the air inside. This can often be seen venting quite explosively from a cave as a blowhole. Inside the cave, the force from the air being rapidly compressed and decompressed gradually fractures the rock. Eventually this is unable to support the weight of the roof of the cave. Once this collapses, the sea washes away the soil and smaller stones leaving just the largest boulders which are slowly smoothed by the wave action.
Almost 90% of plants depend on pollinating insects. In the UK it has been estimated that honeybees pollinate crops worth about £200 million a year, and their total contribution to the economy may be as high as £1 billion.
Surveys have revealed that some European countries are losing a third of their honeybee colonies every winter. Yields of some crops such as apples are already being affected by lack of bees and some commercial plants have been recorded reaching levels of 70% under-pollination.
The decline in bees is thought to be partly due to the loss and fragmentation of wild habitats to urbanisation and intensive agriculture. This has reduced the diversity of food sources available to bees (as farms grow a very limited range of plants) which can result in both an unbalanced diet and also dips in the availability of food at some times of the year. The increased use of pesticides on farmland is also thought to be a factor in their decline.
Climate change presents some problems for bees. High summer temperatures can cause bees to overheat and become lethargic, unable to cover such a wide range to reach nectar and pollen. In spring, there is a risk that warmer temperatures could cause the hatching of bees to fall out of sync with the flowering of certain plants so that important food sources are not available when they are needed.
Not all bee species form breeding colonies like the honey bee. Many are solitary where each female raises her own brood of babies. Bee nest boxes (also known as bee hotels) can provide a safe and suitable environment for solitary bees to raise their young. There are dozens of solitary species ranging from bumblebees to tiny bees only a few millimetres long, so nest boxes often include a range of hole sizes. By locating the boxes in dry, sunny, well-ventilated locations and cleaning them regularly, mould and build-up of parasites can be minimised which are both bad news for baby bees.
Some of the earliest bee hives were made of wicker and covered in mud. During the Middle Ages, woven domes were made from grass known as skeps and the bee colony was kept in this. These provided no internal structure so bees would create their own honeycomb. Also since there was only one chamber, the bees were usually killed to harvest the honey and wax. In the 18th Century, multi-tier structures were developed where the honey could be harvested from one tier whilst the colony could live on in another tier. Also in the 18th Century, the first internal frames began to appear, allowing honey to be harvested more easily. During the 19th Century, the modern style of bee hive was developed.
Cornish pilchard fisheries existed in mediaeval times, and in this period, the fish were smoked to preserve them before export to Spain and Italy. From Tudor times until the early 20th Century, Cornwall's pilchard fisheries were of national importance, with the bulk of the catch being exported almost exclusively to Italian Catholics for religious fasting. Cornish pilchards were the favoured ingredient for the brazenly-flavoured spaghetti alla puttanesca ("puttanesca" transliterates to "like a whore").
The pilchard fisheries rose to their peak in Victorian times. The pilchards were salted and then pressed to extract the oil which was sold as somewhat aromatic lamp oil. The fish were then packed with more salt into hogshead barrels which could fit up to 3000 fish per barrel. Huers (cliff top lookouts) helped locate shoals of fish. The huer would shout "Hevva!, Hevva!" (the Cornish word for "shoal") to alert the boats to the location of the pilchard shoals. The name "huer" is from the old French verb meaning "to shout".
Industrialisation of fishing and the introduction of rail transportation during Victorian times led to over-exploitation of the Cornish pilchard stocks to meet an insatiable demand from the Italian market and the population crashed. Possibly as a knock-on consequence of the lack of availability, demand from Italy dried up and this has allowed pilchard stocks to recover.
Pilchards are from the same family of oily fish as herring and mackerel, and are also high in omega-3 fatty acids and provide a range of minerals and vitamins. Some historical texts rave on about how amazingly healthy and radiant the Cornish peasants were when pilchards were a main component of their diet.
Sardines and pilchards are names for the same fish. Sardine was traditionally the name given to the smaller individuals and pilchards were the ones that managed to avoid being caught for a while longer. Pilchards have been deemed by marketeers as unsexy, possibly because those sold in tins during the late 20th Century tended to be the larger, less-bony specimens and so "pilchard" became associated canned fish. Therefore pilchards are now marketed as "Cornish sardines" when they are sold fresh.
Seaweeds are algae and rely on sunlight to produce energy via photosynthesis in the way terrestrial plants do; they therefore thrive in shallow water where the sunlight penetrates. On the shoreline, you're likely to see brown bladderwrack and red dulse on exposed rocks; within rockpools, green sea lettuces and red coral-like seaweeds. At very low tides, or if you wade into the water beside rocks, brown ribbon-like kelp is common, which is a favourite hiding place for many fish such as bass, pollack and wrasse.
No seaweeds are known to be poisonous and several are eaten raw, cooked or dried. Seaweed is quite rich in iodine which is an essential mineral, but in very large doses is toxic, so excessive consumption are not recommended. A number of food additives such as alginates, agar and carrageenan are produced from seaweed and used as gelling agents and emulsifiers in many processed foods.
On 15 December 1979, the wind had been blowing westerly force 11 since the previous day and that morning had reached force 14 on the anemometer at RAF St Mawgan. Padstow lifeboat station was informed that the Greek vessel Skopelos Sky, three miles north west of Trevose Head, had transmitted a mayday distress signal and needed immediate help. The cargo had shifted in the huge sea and consequently the ship had a dangerous list. Due to the massive waves, which the lifeboat's coxwain described as "like being an insect in a ploughed field", rescue with the lifeboat was impossible as one moment it was alongside the ship's deck and the next beside the propellers. Consequently, the ship's crew had to be rescued by helicopter. The last man remaining aboard - the captain - was winched clear of the deck, seconds before the ship was hit by a huge breaker and rolled onto the rocks at Doyden Head. The ship has now been totally smashed to pieces by the sea with some wreckage buried in the sand and some amongst the cliffs.
Field mushrooms are very closely related to the familiar supermarket button mushrooms and are the most commonly-eaten wild mushroom in Britain. They usually appear in grazed fields between July and November but can be out as early as May. They can sometimes be seen growing in a ring. The gills start out pink and become brown with age and the cap is slightly downy, especially around the edges, often with a skirt left on the stem. As there are a few species of white mushroom that all look quite similar, care needs to be taken to avoid eating poisonous species.
In particular, the common but poisonous "yellow stainer" looks very similar to a field mushroom and consequently causes the most mushroom poisonings in Britain. If the flesh is of a yellow stainer is cut or bruised, particularly at the base of the stem, a yellow liquid starts to seep out (unless the mushroom is very dried-out). This can take a few minutes to be apparent so it might not be until you get them home that you notice yellow patches where the caps have rubbed against something. The yellow stainer also has an unpleasant "chemical" smell (sometimes described as an "elastoplast smell") which helps distinguish it from the more appealing "mushroomy" smell of a field mushroom. A small minority of people have been reported as suffering no obvious ill effects from (presumably accidentally) eating yellow stainers but for the vast majority of people they cause stomach upsets which can be fairly severe including cramps, projectile voting and diarrhoea.
The beach at Port Quin is accessed by slipways either side. The top of the beach is pebbly and this quickly gives way to a large rock platform. As the tide goes out, pockets of sand are also exposed. A stream runs down the centre of the beach making the rocks it passes over weedy and slippery.
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