The name Lizard comes from the Cornish lysardh which literally means "high court" but could also be interpreted as "fortress". It is possibly a reference to the high cliffs along the coast and maybe also that it is a peninsula. Much of the rock making up the peninsula is known as "serpentine" but this is thought to be a coincidence; the name is thought to be based on the appearance of the rock and not a reference to the place name.
The Top House Inn was for many years, as you might have guessed, the most southerly pub in mainland Britain. It was originally a farmhouse and was converted to an Inn during early Victorian times. The benches for one of the tables are made from a German sailing ship that was wrecked on the Lizard in 1900. In 1619, Sir John Killigrew, who built the first lighthouse on The Lizard, noted that many of the houses on The Lizard were "built with the ruins of ships".
A number of shops in Lizard sell serpentine ornaments made from the local stone.
Serpentine is not a single mineral but a broad group of minerals formed when minerals rich in iron and magnesium react with water in a series of chemical reactions known as serpentinization. Rocks containing these minerals are known as Serpentinite. The name is due to the resemblance of the patterning in the rocks to the skin of reptiles.
Alexanders are very salt tolerant so they thrive in Cornwall's salty climate. They are just as likely to be found along coastal footpaths as along country lanes. New growth appears in the autumn so during the winter, when most other plants are dormant, it is a dominant source of greenery along paths and lanes in exposed coastal areas.
The first lighthouse on the Lizard was built in 1619 by Sir John Killigrew of Falmouth, whose family had a colourful history involving smuggling and piracy. A few years before, Sir John had divorced his wife, accusing her of having become a prostitute after having been "first debauched by the governor of Pendennis Castle". Sir John applied for a patent to build the lighthouse and this was granted on the understanding that it be extinguished on the approach of pirates or enemy vessels. The lighthouse maintenance was intended to be funded by collecting voluntary contributions from the ships that passed it. Once built, despite its great benefit to shipping, the shipowners contributions did not materialise. The maintenance cost was bankrupting Killigrew, so James I set a fee of 1 halfpenny per tonne on all vessels passing the light. The uproar at this from the shipowners was so great that the lighthouse was demolished in 1630.
If you want to visit the heritage centre (there is an entry fee) or have a tour of the lighthouse, the entrance is from the left side of the car park. Return to the information board in the car park to continue the walk.
The current lighthouse building was completed in 1751, which Trinity House describes as consisting of "two towers, with a cottage built between them, in which an overlooker lay on a sort of couch, with a window on either side commanding a view of the lanterns. When the bellows-blowers relaxed their efforts and the fires dimmed, he would remind them of their duties by a blast from a cow horn." The twin towers were described by Tennyson as "the southern eyes of England". However, since 1903, only one of the two towers has been used and the lantern has been removed from the other tower. The lighthouse is the most powerful in the British Isles: the light has a range of 21 miles and its reflection can be seen 70 miles away.
The large black fog horns in front of the lighthouse were installed in 1878 and were driven by compressed air. By 1998, they were the last operating compressed-air horns in Britain and were finally decommissioned but are still in working order. The replacement is a high-pitched electric fog signal which is automatically triggered when the humidity exceeds a threshold value. The sound emitted twice a minute is at just under 120 dB which is roughly 30 times louder than a pneumatic drill and can be heard over 4 miles away. The lighthouse cottages have been converted into holiday accommodation where foggy nights have been reported as not conducive to sleep!
The most southerly point of the British mainland - Lizard Point - protrudes far into The Channel and it is surrounded by shallow reefs which extend for roughly half a mile south of the Lizard. The individual rocks each have names: Ennach, Maenheere (furthest south) and Carligga, Carnvel, Man o' War and Mulvin (furthest west).
Also, even without any wind, the tidal race around the headland can reach 5-6 knots. The combination of these factors makes it the single greatest hazard for shipping in British waters. The Admiralty still advises navigators to stay at least three miles away from the Lizard in rough weather.
In March 1907, the 12,000 ton liner SS Suevic ran into thick fog off the coast of Cornwall and, unable to use stellar navigation, calculated their position using the light from the Lizard lighthouse. The crew were confident they were at least ten miles offshore so pressed on at full speed rather then approaching, slowing and using a sounding line to check the depth. Their calculations proved to be incorrect when the ship ran aground onto the Maenheere Reef a quarter of a mile off Lizard Point. In the biggest rescue of the RNLI's history, the crews of the Lizard, Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven lifeboats rowed the half mile round trip repeatedly for sixteen hours in a gale to rescue the 456 passengers and the crew of the ship without a single loss of life.
With the weather still worsening and the bow of the ship completely stuck, engineers from White Star liners salvaged the stern half of the ship by severing the ship along one of its watertight bulkheads using carefully placed charges of dynamite. The rescued half-ship was able to sail (in reverse) under its own steam with tug boats for guidance back to Southampton. A new bow section was built in Belfast and once the two halves were united, the ship continued in service for another 20 years before being sold to a Norwegian who converted her into a whaling factory ship.
In 1721 the HMS Royal Anne - a wooden galley with 42 cannons, and the last fighting ship with oars built for the Royal Navy - was carrying 127 men including Lord Belhaven, the new Governor of Barbados, to the West Indies but had to turn around due to bad weather and was wrecked on Stag Rocks on her way back to Falmouth. There were only three survivors and Lord Belhaven was not one of them.
The wreck was discovered in 1969 but not identified until 1992 when cutlery was raised bearing Lord Belhaven's family crest. None of the wooden structure remains but other artefacts have been found on the sea bed including musket shot and coins. It is now a protected wreck site and there is no diving allowed within a 100 metre radius.
Since the 1720s there have been unsubstantiated claims that over 200 bodies washed ashore from the Royal Anne were buried in mass graves in Pistil Meadow. In 2014, a geophysical study revealed sub-surface structures that could correspond to mass burial pits. However, when excavations were carried out in September 2016, no human remains were found. It is possible some single or small graves were missed but any large pit would have been found by the work. It is now thought likely that the legends have become successively taller stories with each telling: one account mentions hungry dogs scavenging bodies on the beach which was later embellished into dogs digging bodies out of the graves.
Some of the oldest rocks in Cornwall are around the Most Southerly Point which are over half a billion years old and thought to be formed by volcanic activity around the time when the single supercontinent began to break apart. These were metamorphosed around 150 million years later when Cornwall was pushed out of the ocean between two colliding continents. The resulting upwellings of hot magma melted the existing rocks which recrystallised into the hard rocks which now form the headlands. Unlike the barren heathland which occurs over the serpentinite rocks, the soils above these old rocks are quite fertile: cauliflowers and potatoes are grown in the fields on Lizard Point.
The white flowers along the coast in July and August which resemble a more compact version of cow parsley are the delightfully-named sea carrot. Unlike cow parsley, the flowers start off pink and become white as they open and sometimes have a single dark red flower in the centre. It's best to avoid touching the leaves of the sea carrot as they can make skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light which can result in blistering caused by extreme sunburn.
The unusual geology of The Lizard peninsula combined with its mild maritime climate has resulted in a landscape of great conservation interest, supporting over 250 species of national and international importance, many of which are found nowhere else in Britain. Consequently, over 1,600 hectares of The Lizard are designated a National Nature Reserve and managed by Natural England and others are managed by the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife.
A wreck post was located beside this path.
Wreck posts, resembling a telegraph pole with wooden steps, were used for Coastguard practice exercises. The post emulated the mast of a sinking ship. A "shore" team would fire a rocket carrying a light line known as a whip to a man on the post. Once he caught this, it was secured to the post and a heavier line known as a hawser was pulled out using the light line and secured to the post. This could then used to haul out a Breeches Buoy that the crew member could be rescued with.
The small, rocky inlet is called Caerthillian Cove.
In 1941, the SS Gairsoppa was torpedoed in the Celtic Sea whilst returning from India to Britain. Three lifeboats were launched and two of these never made it to the shore. The third, in the charge of the ship's Second Officer, drifted for hundreds of miles before reaching land in Caerthillian Cove at The Lizard. After 13 days, only three of the seven men aboard were still alive. The boat capsized before the Lizard Lifeboat could reach it and only the Second Officer was pulled from the sea alive. The other two seamen are buried at St Wynwallow's church.
Rock Samphire grows on the rocky cliffs within the valley.
Rock samphire has been a popular wild food since Celtic times. It has a strong, characteristic, slightly lemony flavour and recently has become more well-known as a flavouring for gin. It was very popular as a pickle in 16th century Britain until it almost died out from over-picking in the 19th Century. Consequently, it's currently a protected plant but is now making a good comeback. In Shakespeare's time, a rope was tied to a child's ankles and he was dangled over the cliff to pick the rock samphire that grew in crevices and clefts in the rocks.
The completely unrelated but similar-looking golden samphire also grows around the North Cornish coast. The leaves look almost identical, but the daisy-like yellow flowers in summer are a giveaway, as rock samphire has tiny green-white flowers that look more like budding cow parsley. Golden samphire is edible, but is inferior in flavour to rock samphire; it is also nationally quite rare in Britain.
Also completely unrelated is marsh samphire (also known as glasswort) which looks more like micro-asparagus. This is what typically appears on restaurant menus or in supermarkets as "samphire".
The wreck of the SS Gairsoppa was discovered in 2011 in a three mile deep area of the Celtic sea. The ship was carrying 200 tonnes of silver when it sank, worth tens of millions of pounds today. By 2013, 61 tonnes of silver bullion had been recovered, and in 2014 the Royal Mint used a portion of the recovered silver to issue 20,000 commemorative 50p coins.
The remnants of a wreck visible at low tide on Pentreath beach are from the steam-powered trawler, Maud, which was wrecked in 1912. The damaged trawler was on tow by a tug and the captain ordered the engines of the trawler to be run to reduce drag on the tug. The strain caused by the engines on the damaged boat caused it to leak. On finding water was coming into the cabin floor, the engineer bored holes in the watertight bulkhead, to allow the water to drain into the engine room bilges. Salvage pumps were taken onboard at Milford Haven but the vessel's bilges were not properly cleaned out. As they rounded the lizard in a gale, the pumps clogged and the trawler began to take on water. The holes drilled through the (no longer watertight) bulkhead allowed water to flood the engine room, extinguishing the boiler and thus permanently killing all the pumps except hand pumps which were inadequate. The tug tried to get the trawler ashore but could not move the waterlogged boat against the gale and its crew had to abandon it. The trawler washed ashore just before it sank. A formal investigation found the actions of the Captain and Engineer to be "wrongful" and suspended the Captain's licence.
On 31st August 1924, the Bardic went aground on Maenheere at the Lizard. The Lizard lifeboat brought her 93 crew ashore but 44 returned to the ship to keep the refrigerators running as the ship's cargo was frozen rabbits. On 8th September the increasing winds meant it was no longer safe for the crew to remain aboard and they were taken ashore by the lifeboat. Without the crew to attend to the refrigerators, they stopped working and the rabbits began to decompose. Once the wind dropped, the ship was towed into Falmouth, the smell of which would not have delighted the residents. The rotting rabbits were dumped down a mineshaft at St Day.
Choughs nest in the area and, if you are lucky, you may see (or equally likely hear) some as you walk along the coast.
The chough is a member of the crow family, with striking red legs and a red beak. They are also recognisable from feathers, spread like fingers, on their wing tips. It was known as the "Crow of Cornwall" and appears on the county coat of arms. The birds have a loud, distinctive "chee-ow" call which is perhaps best described as resembling a squeaky dog toy! Once you've heard it a couple of times, you'll be able to recognise them from the sound long before you can see them.
The shallow bed of white sand surrounding the spit of land forming the beach results in brilliant turquoise water surrounding the islands. Consequently, Kynance Cove is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and attracts a quarter of a million visitors every year. The cove first became popular in the early Victorian era, with Queen Victoria and Alfred Tennyson being amongst the visitors.
The part of the beach with most of the caves and islands is only accessible for the lowest part of the tide so it's also really worth planning a visit around the tide times to get the most out of a visit.
Due to its popularity in Victorian times, the caves at Kynance Cove have acquired suitably Victorian names such as The Parlour, The Drawing Room and Ladies Bathing Pool. The rock stacks also have colourful names including The Lion, The Bishop, Steeple Rock and Sugarloaf Rock, and no Cornish beach would be complete without a Gull Rock. Asparagus Island, accessible at low tide, is more functionally-named - it is one of the few remaining places in the UK where wild asparagus still grows.
There is a blowhole in Asparagus Island, known by the same name as the one at Boscastle - The Devil's Bellows. When there is a swell, at mid tide, it ejects water through what is termed The Devil's Letterbox. The blowhole is connected to a sixty metre long tunnel which passes all the way through Asparagus Island. On the southwest side, buckles and coins have been found in the sand which it is thought may be from a Dutch wreck in the early 1700s.
The open heathland provides an ideal habitat for a more literal serpent - the adder.
The name "adder" arose through a mistake. In mediaeval English, a word for any generic snake was a nadder. Through a process of misunderstanding known as "wrong division", the correct form a nadder became the incorrect an adder. Eventually the usage became restricted from any snake to just the snake also known as the viper.
Heathers and heaths are members of the Ericaceae family. The formal definition of a heather is a member of the Calluna genus within this family whereas heaths are members of the Erica genus. Bell heather is actually an Erica and therefore technically not a heather but a heath.
Heather plants can live up to 40 years and over time they form woody stems. This provides them with a way of excreting heavy metals that they absorb by locking it up in the layers of dead wood (found by researchers as the areas in the plant with the highest concentrations). Their woody stems have also found many uses over the centuries including fuel, thatch and ropes. One other use has made it into the genus name for heather - kallune is Greek for "to brush".
Serpentine rocks produce soils which are low in nutrients and sometimes contain metal compounds that are toxic to many plants. The areas above these rocks are consequently known as Serpentine Barrens. The flora that is found here is very specialised and often slow growing due to the limited nutrients. The resulting low growth means that it is a good habitat for lizards and snakes to "catch some rays" but this is a happy coincidence rather than anything to do with the name.
The county flower of Cornwall is the Cornish Heath - a plant that most people (Cornish included) have never heard of let alone seen. The only place in England that the shrub grows is on the Lizard Peninsula and it looks fairly unremarkable until late summer when it produces the most beautiful tiny lilac-coloured flowers. It is easy to distinguish from other heather flowers by the dark ring around the ends of the pale flowers.
In Rill Cove is a Spanish wreck which is possibly the wreck from 1616 known as the "great silver ship". More than 700 Spanish silver coins have been recovered. The wreck is now a protected site, with no diving allowed within 100 metres.
In January 2004, a trawler from Brittany, the "Bugaled Breizh", sank off The Lizard with the loss of 5 lives. After raising the vessel, it was found to have sustained no impact but to have been crushed by water pressure. Accident investigators concluded that the vessel was most likely to have been pulled under by its nets snagging a submarine, which could take down a vessel of this size in just over a minute. There were several British, French and Dutch submarines in the approximate area at the time on a NATO exercise, but none of these were reported to be at the location where the boat sank. There was also an unidentified submarine in the area, observing the NATO exercise, and the conclusion of the Inquiry by the French authorities was that this "spy" submarine may well have been the cause of the sinking.
The cattle breeds known as Devon were also the traditional breeds used in Cornwall until recent years. The South Devon breed, affectionately known as "Orange Elephant" or "Gentle Giant", is the largest of the British native breeds: the largest recorded bull weighed 2 tonnes. They are thought to have descended from the large red cattle of Normandy, which were imported during the Norman invasion of England. The other breed, known as "Devon Ruby" or "Red Ruby" (due to their less orange colouration), is one of the oldest breeds in existence, with origins thought to be from pre-Roman Celtic Britain.
Part of the Earth's mantle, normally tens of miles below your feet, was once bulldozed onto the Cornish mainland in front of the advancing continent. The mantle contains elements such as iron, magnesium and calcium which are less common in the Earth's crust as they are comparatively heavy and normally get chance to sink back into the mantle. The rocks rich in these minerals, such as Greenstone, are referred to as "mafic" whereas those containing relatively little (e.g. granite which is formed from magma which slowly works its way up through the Earth's crust) are referred to as "felsic".
It is these mafic rocks, from the earth's mantle, that have reacted with water to form the Serpentinite that The Lizard is famous for. As you have been walking along the path, you may have noticed how Serpentinite rocks have been polished by the feet of generations of walkers, often resulting in some spectacularly colourful steps.
In nuclear reactors, high energy neutrons are produced. If these escape from the reactor, they are biologically harmful. Materials containing hydrogen atoms are the most effective at slowing the excited neutrons down so that they can be re-absorbed within the reactor. Because of its high level of bound water, serpentine makes a very good neutron-shield and Serpentinite gravel is therefore added to make the special concrete used in reactor shielding.
The village of Lizard dates from early mediaeval times. It was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 and at the time was held by a landowner named Richard who had 1 hide, 4 wild mares, 3 cattle, 20 pigs and 60 sheep. The relatively small amount of beef available in mediaeval times is notable. It would have been eaten mainly by the wealthy landowners and the peasants would have kept a pig. At this point in time, a pasty, based on the meat of the gentry and on potatoes from undiscovered South America, would have been a decadent and futuristic fantasy.
In September 1886, the Suffolk - a 300ft long iron sail and steamship - was on her way back from Baltimore in the USA with a cargo of tobacco, wheat, flour, walnut logs and cattle. In thick fog she hit Old Lizard Head and was wrecked. All of her crew and passengers were saved but only 26 of the 161 cattle survived. The broken-up remains of the ship lie in 10 metres of water just north of the headland.
In the 1970s, a two boys playing on the cliffs of Pentreath beach found 16 small gold bars. From an analysis of their composition at the time, they are thought to have been melted down during Celtic times from Iron Age coins made in Gaul around 2000 years ago. As they were not in their original form, they were awarded to their finders and have now vanished.
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.
One in five of all known fungi form lichens. Studies suggest that many species of fungi that form lichens started out from ancestors that lived on organic waste. Fossils have also revealed that the symbiosis between algae and fungi dates back more than 400 million years roughly to the time when plants first evolved from green algae.
Lichens often grow on sick or dying trees so some gardeners assume that the lichen might be harming the tree. In fact, it's purely because these trees have fewer leaves so there is more light available for the algae inside the fungus to photosynthesise. It's too dark under many healthy trees for the lichen to grow.
You'll notice that there is lichen growing on many of the headstones in the churchyard. Of the 2,000 British species, over a third have been found in churchyards and more than 600 have been found growing on churchyard stone in lowland England. Almost half the species are rare and some seldom, if ever, occur in other habitats. Many churchyards are found to have well over 100 species.
Lichens obtain nearly all their nutrients from the atmosphere and therefore can be very sensitive to air pollution. As a general rule of thumb, healthy lichens means clean air, but more specifically, different species have been found to be sensitive to different pollutants. By identifying common species that exhibits change for a particular pollutant, lichens can be used as an early warning dashboard showing not only how much air pollution there is but also what kind.
Jackdaws can be distinguished from other members of the crow family by their short black beaks and grey necks. They are smaller than all the other black birds in the crow family and are only slightly larger than jays.
Jackdaws are able to recognise eye gestures from humans (e.g. if someone looks at where a food item is hidden). It has been suggested that jackdaws may use this with other birds too and this may be the reason that they have a striking blue eye colour that is easily seen from a distance.
Jackdaws are very adept vocal mimics and have been known to sing virtually anything including opera and Madonna! They can be trained to copy the human voice but only for single words or short phrases.
Jackdaws also use a their calls in a democratic process to make group decisions for a flock such as whether to move location. If enough of the birds "vote" by making their voice heard, the entire flock will respect this and take off, even the birds that didn't vote for it.
Jackdaws have been found to share food and will share more of a preferred food than an unpleasant one. Although the sharing often takes place in courtship and parenting, the behaviour has also been observed in unrelated birds. It is thought that this pro-social behaviour might be a sign of reciprocity ("do unto others...") and possibly empathy.
The Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis), was once classified as a Mesembryanthemum but as plant genetics were better understood, was found to be a close relative but in a different sub-family of the larger ice-plant family. They are called ice plants due to hairs on the leaves which refract sunlight and make them sparkle. The plant is native to South Africa and was originally grown ornamentally in gardens but has subsequently gone feral and settled on the coastline where it thrives in sandy soils, helped by its resistance to wind and salt. It forms a dense mat which crowds out other species and is therefore considered invasive.
Tamarisks, also known as salt cedars, are able to withstand drought, soil salinity, and salt-water spray and therefore thrive in mild coastal areas such as the Cornish coastline. Their ability to accumulate salt and then excrete this through glands in their leaves prevents less salt-tolerant plants from growing around their base.
The seal species most frequently seen along the Cornish coast is the grey seal. Common seals are also sometimes seen. Seals are not closely related to other marine mammals. The skeleton of an adult male grey seal (apart from the limbs) closely resembles that of a leopard. However, as you might be able to guess from their facial features, seals are most closely related to dogs, bears and otters. In fact, a dog is very much more closely related to a seal than a dog is to a cat.
Seal pups have been seen in every month of the year but the majority are born in the autumn and early winter. Female seals mate soon after weaning their pups whilst the males are still around defending and patrolling the beaches. For just over three months the fertilised embryo does not attach to the wall of the uterus and does not develop. There then follows a gestation period of just under 9 months. This evolutionary strategy - known as delayed implantation - results in the pups being born at the same time every year.
Research by the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust has found that the majority of seals in Cornwall are tourists, stopping over on their way to somewhere else. Very few seals spend the whole year in one place and some of those visiting Cornwall have been identified in Wales and others in France.
Grey Seals are one of the rarest seal species in the world and the biggest land breeding mammal in the UK. Roughly half of the world population of grey seals is found in Britain, a large proportion of which are found in Cornwall. They are big animals with the larger males often over 10ft long; the females are somewhat smaller at around 6ft and usually lighter colours than the males. The Latin name for the grey seal translates to the somewhat unflattering "hooked-nosed sea pig" and the alternative common name of "horsehead seal" isn't much better.
Seals are easily disturbed by the presence of humans (and dogs) and this is can be the difference between life and death for seals in several different ways. Perhaps the most obvious is that a panicking seal is liable to injure itself rushing for the water. When breeding, even mild disturbance can lead to mothers abandoning their pups which then starve to death. More subtly, disturbance also causes seals to burn up their precious energy reserves. Even in a "good" year, 75% of young seals can end up dying due to insufficient energy reserves (95% in a very bad year!). If a seal looks at you, this should ring alarm bells as it means you're too close. To watch seals responsibly, it's important to keep your distance (at least 100m), avoid being conspicuous (e.g. on the skyline) and minimise noise.
The Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust gather information about the numbers of seals in each location to study migration behaviour. Each seal has a unique pattern of spots which is like a fingerprint, allowing individuals to be identified so photos are also very useful.
If you see one or more seals, take a photo if possible but never approach the seals to take a photo - use a zoom from a clifftop. Send the location, date, number of seals and photos if you have them to sightings@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk.
The magpie is a member of the crow family and like other crows is omnivorous, feeding on pretty much anything it can find although it prefers high energy foods. Magpies spend most of their life in a 6 mile radius of where they were born and live in loose social groups. They will form gangs and use complex social strategies for hunting and tackling predators. Names for a group of magpies include a "tiding", "charm" and "chatter" (the latter reflecting their social communication).
The magpie is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all animals. The area of its brain used for higher cognitive function is approximately the same in its relative size as in chimpanzees and humans. Magpies can count, imitate human voices, recognise themselves in a mirror and have been observed regularly using tools to keep their cages clean. It has even been suggested that magpies may feel complex emotions, including grief.
Since members of the crow family will eat the eggs and chicks of other birds, there has been concern that magpies might have an effect on the songbird population. However, an extensive study by the British Trust for Ornithology using 35 years of data found that the presence of magpies appeared to have no measurable effect on songbird numbers. It is thought that availability of food and suitable nesting sites are probably the main factors limiting songbird populations. Hedgerows are a particularly important habitat.
The folklore about magpies collecting shiny objects has been shown to be an incorrect myth. A scientific study found that magpies are actually scared of shiny objects and actively avoid them.
Even up to the 16th Century, magpies were simply known as "pies" from the Old French word pie (related to the Latin word for magpie - pica). The term "pied" meaning "black-and-white" (as in pied wagtail) is from the magpie's colouration. It's also possible that the pastry thing we now know as a pie (which can be traced back to Mediaeval Latin) was named after the magpie. It has been speculated that the assortment of ingredients in the pastry crust was likened to objects collected in a magpie nest. The "mag" in the modern name is a (somewhat sexist) mediaeval slang word for someone who chatters, based on the name Margaret.
The breeches buoy is a piece of life-saving equipment devised in the 1860s. It is essentially a zip-line to which a "cradle" (consisting of a lifebelt with a pair of attached shorts) is connected. The flotation device provided a backup if the line broke or sagged into the sea. The breeches - whilst not glamorous - were an effective way of preventing the person being rescued from being washed off the zip-line by breaking waves.
A lightweight line was first sent from the shore to the wrecked ship possibly via a kite, rocket or mortar. This was then used to haul out a more heavy-duty rope (known as a "hawser") on which the zip-line could run. Lighter ropes were also secured to the cradle from each end so it could be hauled in each direction to bring each crew member ashore and then send it back for the next one.
One of the challenges with the mode of rescue was length of time needed for transferring the crew one-by-one. During this period the vessel could roll, drift away or sink. Training the rescue team to operate at the maximum speed possible was therefore important.
At the bottom of the slipway is a small beach of coarse grey sand which extends around the corner to a second area of beach at low tide. To the left of the lifeboat ramp is a large rock platform which extends out from the headland at low tide and contains a number of rockpools. The strong currents around Lizard Point make this an unsafe beach for swimming.
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