As the name of the pub - the Five Pilchards - suggests, the port flourished during the heyday of pilchard fishing and a number of the buildings are relics of this. During mediaeval times, it was a major fishery, initially owned by an Abbey, and the pilchard fishery continued into Victorian times. In more recent times, Porthallow was largely owned by the Trelowarren Estate and the beach was still owned by the estate until the 1970s when it was purchased by the village. The place name is pronounced locally as "pralla".
During the Second World War, about 28,000 concrete fortifications were built across England and around 6,500 of these still survive. The hexagonal blockhouses known as "pillboxes" are assumed by many to have been named after similarly-shaped containers for medical pills. However, commentary on early models during the First World War suggests the origin of the name is actually from "pillar box", based on the slots for machine guns resembling a postbox.
Along the coast, from June onwards but particularly in the late summer and autumn, parasol mushrooms are common. They are one of the easier mushrooms to recognise due to their huge size (and umbrella shape when fully open). The brown flecks on their otherwise white flesh are caused by the rapidly expanding young mushroom bursting through a brown outer coating as it grows (a bit like "sugar puffs" breakfast cereal!). Other characteristic features include a snakeskin-like brown pattern on the stem and there's often a ring around the stem which is detached (can be carefully slid upwards to verify).
Parasol mushrooms have firm white flesh and delicate flavour which is not strongly "mushroomy". This makes them an excellent carrier for other flavours within a sauce, adding texture and body to a dish.
Small amounts of quarrying were taking place here in Victorian times but at the start of the 20th Century the cliffs still extended out beyond where the building is now. The main area was excavated after the Second World War.
The Iron Age saltworks on The Lizard inspired the idea for the Cornish Sea Salt Company in 2004 which, after three years of development work, began trading in Jan 2008. The salt is harvested from the sea in a purpose-built building on the Lizard coast. Only a fraction of the salt is extracted from the seawater, which is then allowed to trickle back into the sea through a fault in the rocks, ensuring that the local salinity levels are not greatly disturbed.
By the end of the 1950s, most of the area here had been levelled and there was a tramway running from the raised platform to Porthkerris. The tramway ran all the way along the top of Porthkerris Cove to the concrete platform on the other side that you'll be walking along shortly.
The two-storey building was the control centre for an airborne torpedo testing range during the Cold War. Photographs taken from this and a second station at Nare Point (now the Coastwatch lookout) were used to calculate the position, speed and direction of dummy torpedoes launched from planes and, later, helicopters. The steps down to the sea were used to unload the anti-submarine torpedoes once they were recovered by boat. After the range was decommissioned in 1993, the building was used as accommodation for military dive training.
Porthkerris is a pebble beach at all states of the tide. The cove is used for diving due to the steep drop-off and the reef close to the shore. Other than divers, it's usually quite quiet.
It's likely that spoil from quarrying that has fallen into the sea over the last century has increased the amount of pebbles and has also elevated the back of the beach. On Victorian and early 20th Century OS maps, the high tide line is recorded just behind where the dive centre is now.
The settlement of Porthkerris was first recorded in 1296 as Porthkersis. As well as the Cornish word porth for "cove", it is thought that the name might be based on the word cors meaning "reeds" which may have been present before the cove was altered significantly by quarrying.
Carefully climb up the gully to the concrete track and follow this to where a small path departs between the cliff and quarry.
Follow the path uphill, and eventually down to reach a waymark with an unfenced cliff sign.
Bear left down the steps and follow the path to another waymark just before a walled area containing gravel.
The quarrying of schist and gabbro from the coast near Porthkerris started in 1896 and operated until the 1960s. This was used for road chippings. In the earlier period of operation, cliff-top engine houses were used to haul carts along inclined tramways.
Two engine houses were located on the clifftop above the wall. These were used to haul carts up the incline that you've just walked up. It's thought that the larger of the two engine houses, which is now lost (possibly parts of it are buried under the gravel) was likely to have been built first. A smaller engine house built on the inshore side of the other one still survives and may have provided auxiliary power when the load was too great for the main engine.
In February 1881, the schooner Georgina was carrying a cargo of railway sleepers from the iron foundries in Wales and ran aground on the Levellers Rocks between Porthoustock and Porthkerris.
In order to attract attention, the crew used a tar barrel to light an old sail. This was semi-successful in that it was noticed on the shore, but this was partly because it also set fire to the rest of the vessel which burnt down the the waterline and then broke up!
The crew were rescued by the Porthoustock lifeboat.
Pass around the gate and continue past some ruined buildings.
Follow the path until it passes around another gate and emerges onto a tarmac lane.
The large rectangular concrete structure on the left side of the beach was a loading jetty. The tramway from the quarries once led onto the top of this and the carts containing gravel would tipped above one of the four loading chutes.
The settlement of Porthoustock was first recorded around 1250 as Pordeustek and is pronounced "prowstock" by locals. Other than the porth meaning cove or harbour, no-one is quite sure of the origin of the name. The sheltered and steeply-sloping beach makes it a good boat launching location. A lifeboat was therefore stationed here from 1869 until 1942 and the lifeboat house remains, albeit re-purposed. Fish cellars also existed here and at least one of these has been re-purposed into accommodation.
Porthoustock is a pebble beach at high tide with grey sand and shingle at low tide. Much of the grey sand and shingle is likely to be due to spoil from quarrying that ended up in the sea.
As the beach faces east, it's sheltered from prevailing winds and is used to launch small boats. The quarry on the southern side of the beach is still working and fairly large vessels berth along the quay there to load stone.
Go through the gate and follow the path uphill along the fence and cross straight over the track near the top to reach a kissing gate in the corner of the field.
For many years, the coast path was routed inland through the fields here due to the quarrying on the coast. In June 2025, the coast path was re-opened along the coast.
Go through the gateway and turn left onto the road.
Follow the road to a junction.
In winter, birds have a tough time finding enough food to sustain themselves and keep warm. Flocking offers a number of advantages that eases this pressure. Roosting as a flock means they can huddle together to keep warm (one big object has a larger heat capacity and smaller surface area than lots of little ones so heat is lost more slowly). A flock can also share the work of looking out for predators and spotting food, allowing more time to be spent on feeding. Birds of different species will sometimes even flock together to cooperate.
If flocking offers so many advantages, you may wonder why birds don't do it all year round. During the spring, breeding is all about competition between the birds for mates and nesting sites and here it pays to split up to reduce competition. Also, summer food sources tend to be more spread out (e.g. insects) rather than the dense clumps of seeds and berries found in winter that are better able to feed a flock.
During the 18th Century, a salt tax was introduced in Britain, both on production and on import. Ireland didn't have this tax, so large amounts of rock salt were exported from Cheshire to Ireland to fuel the resulting boom in salt refinement there. Refined salt from Ireland was smuggled back to Britain in sufficient quantities to put the (taxed) sea salt industry into further decline.
Keep right at the junction to keep following the road towards St Keverne.
Continue until you reach a junction on the right.
The settlement of Trenance was first recorded as a manor in the Domesday survey of 1086 spelt Trenant. The name is the Cornish for "valley farm". In 1086 it had a pasture of 100 acres and arable land for 6 ploughs and was owned by Algar. Prior to the Norman conquest it had been owned by Oswulf.
Where the Domesday survey mentions "land for one plough" this was a measurement of land taxation rather than a measurement of actual land area.
In Norman times and before, ploughing was done with oxen. A single oxen could plough 15 acres in a season so "land for one plough" was loosely based on this. With 8 oxen, around 120 acres could be ploughed in a season which represented enough to support a (manorial) household (a peasant household would get by on a lot less!). The unit of land tax known as a "hide" was based on this (effectively "land for 8 ploughs").
In both cases, the actual area of land for each taxation unit varied with the productivity of the land. The lower income that the land produced, the larger the area a taxable unit covered. More-or-less, they were the Norman version of Council Tax bands.
Bear right off the road at the junction and cross the low stone stile to the left of the metal gate.
Follow the path between the wall and fence to reach a stile.
There is an old radar station along the lane to Porthkerris which was associated with the Torpedo Range at the mouth of the Helford River. Radar aerials were originally located beside the building but have since been removed.
Genetic analysis has revealed that domestic apples originated from wild apples in Kazakstan near the Chinese border. It is thought that the apple was probably the first tree to be domesticated by humans, several thousand years ago. Wild apples grew in the British Isles in Neolithic times but domesticated apples were introduced by the Romans. Over 7500 varieties of apple are now known.
Descend the steps then bear left to follow the path downhill to the yard. Cross this to the waymark opposite.
The UK produces nearly two-thirds of all cider in the European Union and by volume of alcohol, the excise duty on cider is lower than any other drink. Cider has had a huge resurgence in popularity over the last few years and three in five adults now drink it.
Cider is part of the Westcountry heritage and this includes a tradition dating back to the early Middle Ages known as the "Orchard Wassail" where an offering of bread and cider was made to the apple trees and incantations were recited to promote a good harvest.
Cornish ciders beginning to achieve popularity outside the county include "Cornish Rattler" from Healey's cider farm (distributed by St Austell Ales) and "Orchard Cornish" cider (a joint venture between Cornish Orchards and Sharp's Brewery). In the interests of research, both have been extensively tested and deemed very refreshing and conducive to the recital of incantations.
Fat Apples Café is on the site of Porthallow Vineyard which was the most southerly in Britain. This made it into the national press in 1998 after the owner at the time was prosecuted by Trading Standards. A Trading Standards inspector became suspicious when he came across a 1992 vintage - the year that the vines were cut back. According to the newspaper reports, a site visit revealed that "estate produced and bottled" wine was made from wine kits and cider production involved soaking off the labels of shop-bought cider and re-labelling it.
The settlement here, known as Park-an-Tidno, dates from mediaeval times and was recorded in 1419 as Parksyntynnyowe. It is thought to have originally been based on the Cornish word fenten, meaning "spring" or "well", plus the more recognisable park, meaning "field". -yow was a common plural ending in the Celtic language. The gist would have been something like "Springfields".
Porthallow is now probably best known for being the midpoint of the South West Coast Path.
The South West Coast Path stretches for 630 miles from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset. It was created as a route between lighthouses for use by the Coastguard so they could overlook the bays and coves to catch smugglers.
Keep right at the junction to continue following the road (uphill).
Follow the road until you reach a sharp bend to the left with a grassy island ahead, Roskorwell tea room to the right and various properties all named "Manor" to the right.
Bear right off the road to the track leading from the back of the grassy island.
Follow the track ahead to reach a pair of field entrances either side and continue a little further to a stone stile and gateway on the left.
The first record of the settlement of Roskorwell is from around 1300, spelt Roscurvyl. The Cornish word ros can either mean a hill spur or promontory, but also heathland. The settlement is at the start of a promontory with a valley on one side and coast on the other so this could be the origin. It's possible that the remainder of the name is from a personal name which may be part of the reason for the large drift in its spelling over the centuries.
Cross the stile so you are in the left of the 2 fields (or go through the 2 gateways to reach the other side of the stile).
Once in the field, with the stile behind you, follow the right hedge of the field down to a small ford beside a lake.
Pineapple weed is related to chamomile and is consequently also known as false chamomile. Unlike chamomile, it doesn't have white flowers - its flowers consisting of little yellow balls are therefore quite distinctive. Even more so is the fruity pineapple-like scent when is trodden on or squeezed.
Pineapple weed was introduced into the UK in the late 19th Century but is now widely naturalised. One reason it has been so successful is that it is able to colonise poor soils on waste ground including cracks between paving and consequently one of its common names is "street weed". In the rural environment it's often encountered near gateways or tracks through fields where the ground has been disturbed by tractors.
Swallows forage for insects on the wing, typically around 7-8 metres above the ground, but will skim over the surface of the ground if that's where the insects are. They can sometimes be seen skimming the surface of water either to drink or to bathe which they also do in flight.
The field to the right of the track, just before it ends in the gate, was known as "The Hospital".
From historical records, it is thought that a mediaeval chapel licensed in 1403 stood in Hospital Field at Lestowder. Graves have been found which support this. The chapel was dedicated to St John the Baptist and there are also mentions of a nunnery at the location. It's thought that a hospital may have been part of this.
Cross the stile on the right (or go through the gate) and turn right onto the lane.
Follow the lane for just under half a mile to a bridge over a stream.
Continue ahead from the Private Road sign to reach a track on the left signposted as a Public Bridleway.
Honeysuckle flowers appear from June to August and their fragrance is due to a class of chemical compounds known as jasminoids that occur in, as you might have guessed, jasmine but also Ceylon tea. Honeysuckle is the food plant of the White Admiral caterpillar so keep a look for the butterflies in summer.
The first record of the settlement at Lestowder is from around 1400 when it was recorded as Lesteudar. The word begins with the Cornish word for "court" (lys). Teudar is the name of a semi-legendary Cornish king.
Buddleia are originally from northwest China and Japan where they grow in forest clearings, on riverbanks and on limestone outcrops where they are able to survive with minimal nutrients. They were introduced into the UK as an ornamental plant in the late 19th Century and can found in many gardens. Some have escaped and established a niche on industrial land which resembles their native limestone outcrops.
The shrub is commonly known as the Butterfly Bush as the flowers are profuse, rich in nectar and are in the shape of champagne flutes; butterflies and bees have sufficiently long drinking apparatus to reach the bottom.
The plant has two types of leaf; the broad green leaves are replaced with shorter hairy grey leaves during the winter which are more resistant to frost and the drying effect of cold winds.
Wild Clematis, also known "traveller's joy", produces white silky seeds in autumn which give rise to another name: "old man's beard". These stay on the plant through much of the winter and provide both food for birds and fluff for lining their nests. The tangled structure of their stems also provides cover and nesting sites for birds. During the summer months, their flowers are a good source of nectar for bees.
The French name is "herbe aux gueux" - beggar's herb. It is said to be because the sap was used deliberately to irritate the skin to give it an ulcerated look to induce more sympathy. The sap contains a chemical called protoanemonin which causes blistering.
There are several species of dock but two of the most common found in fields are the broad-leaved and curly dock. Broad-leaved docks are the ones with the big leaves that are usually grabbed after a stinging nettle encounter. They can live for at least 5 years and normally don't produce seeds until their second year. Curled docks have more slender leaves which often have more wavy edges. They are shorter-lived and can flower only 9 weeks after germination but often die after flowering if not cut.
The first record of Pennare dates from 967 (spelt Penard), before the Norman Conquest when Cornish was the language spoken by the land-owning gentry as well as peasants. The word means "headland" (from the words "top" and "cliff") as the settlement is located on a ridge of land with a valley on one side and the coast on the other, terminating in Nare Point.
The names "Nare" Point and "Nare" Head are remnants of this. In Tudor Times, Nare Point was still known as Penare Head. Since then, the initial "Pe" has been lost and then naming became even more confused with Nare Cove and Polnare Cove (pol already means "cove").
In March 1891, the Bay of Panama - a four-masted steel ship of over 2000 tons - was wrecked at Penare Point near the Helford River in a blizzard. A farmer searching for his animals came across the wreck and found figures hanging in the rigging, some dead and some still alive. The West Briton newspaper reported:
The lifesaving rockets were brought into requisition, and by their aid, 17 sailors were brought ashore, but the Captain, his wife and 18 seamen were drowned. Several of the bodies were washed ashore yesterday, including the Captain's wife.
Lackey Moths are so named due to the brightly coloured caterpillars resembling a footman's livery. They are part of a family of "tent caterpillars" who spin their own silk greenhouse to keep them warm during the early spring. These have several compartments separated by insulating air gaps so the caterpillars can move between compartments to reach a comfortable temperature depending on the outside temperature and amount of sunshine. On sunny days in May, keep a look out for the caterpillars emerging from their tents.
Porthallow beach is a pebble beach and there is a beach at all states of the tide. Along the right-hand side of the beach there are larger rocks and a rock platform is exposed at low tide. A rock platform also lies under the cliffs along the left side of the beach. The beach faces east away from prevailing winds so it is quite sheltered. Consequently the pebbles towards the low-water line can become quite weedy.
The beach is used to launch boats. Due to the rocks either side there's a reasonably narrow channel where they can launch and land which is something to be mindful of if swimming here.
In January 1891, the Dove was on its way from Exeter to Gweek with a cargo described as "artificial manure" (chemical fertiliser). As it passed along the Cornish coast, it encountered a blizzard (which became known as the Great Blizzard of 1891). The gales drove the vessel ashore on the rocks at Porthoustock Cove. The captain, the mate and the captain's young son were all saved.
The name "buttercup" is thought to have come from a mediaeval belief that cows eating the flowers gave butter its yellow colour. In fact this couldn't be further from the truth as the plant contains toxins which make it taste acrid and is therefore avoided by grazing animals.
The Latin name of the buttercup, Ranunculus, means "little frog" and said to be because the plants like wet conditions. It is thought it may have come via a derogatory name for people who lived near marshes!
There are a few different species of buttercup. One of most common is meadow buttercup (unsurprisingly found in meadows!) which is the tallest member of the family. Another common one is creeping buttercup which as the name suggests spreads through rhizomes so is more likely to be found in dense clumps in damp places. Its leaves are also more golden and glossy.
Meadow buttercups spread across a field relatively slowly as most seeds fall quite close to the parent and although it has a creeping root system capable of propagating new plants, this only extends a fairly short distance from each plant (unlike creeping buttercup which has a much more extensive root system). Because grazing animals avoid buttercups due to their acrid taste, this allows them to accumulate over time. The combination of these factors allows the number of meadow buttercups in a field to be used as an indicator of how long it's been used for grazing.
Buttercups produce a toxin called protoanemonin, which is at its highest concentration when flowering. It is thought that buttercups may be partly responsible for Equine Grass Sickness. Fortunately the toxin is quite unstable and drying of the plant in haymaking leads to polymerisation into non-toxic anemonin. Buttercups are also toxic to dogs, cats and humans. They have a bitter taste which puts dogs off eating the plants but pollen can collect on fur and be ingested, particularly by cats when they clean themselves. A man in France who drank a glass of juice made from buttercups suffered severe colic after four hours and was dead the next day!
Primroses prefer moist soils so they tend to grow either in semi-shady places which don't get dried out too much by the sun such as woodland clearings and the base of hedgerows, or in wet open ground such as near streams.
Primrose seeds are quite large and therefore, due to their weight, don't travel far from the plant. This causes a clump of primroses to spread out very slowly over time and means it takes a long time for primroses to colonise new areas. This makes large carpets of primroses a very good indicator of ancient woodland where they would have had many hundreds of years to spread out.
Although primroses flower most intensely in March and April, some primroses can begin flowering in late December. The name "primrose" from the Latin for "first" (as in "primary"), alluding to their early flowering.
Primrose flowers provide an important nectar source for pollinators that hibernate over winter and emerge quite early like brimstone and small tortoiseshell butterflies - these are some of the first butterflies to be seen in spring. Primrose is also the food plant for the caterpillars of the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly.
Most primroses tend to be pale yellow but in residential areas, extensive hybridisation occurs with pink and purple garden primulas to create all kinds of weird and wonderful mutants, with some even shaped like cowslips. However, there is a pale pink variety of primrose (known as rhubarb and custard) that is thought to be a naturally-occurring variant of the pale yellow (rhubarb-free) version as it has been found miles away from any domestic plants.
During Victorian times, the building of railways allowed primrose flowers picked in the Westcountry to be on sale in London the next day. Picking was done on a large scale but eventually became unfashionable, being seen as environmentally destructive. However all the evidence gathered suggests as long as the flowers were picked and the plants were not dug up, the practice was sustainable.
Handling primroses is best avoided as the hairs on the leaves and stems can cause contact dermatitis which is quite severe in some people. It is thought that some people may develop a tolerance with repeated exposure but nevertheless a study in a medical journal found that over a quarter of Primula growers experienced skin reactions.
Lavender is a member of the sage family of herbs. There are 47 species of lavender and hundreds of commercial cultivars but the most widely cultivated and traditional is English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia, also known as common lavender and garden lavender). Despite the name, is not native to England but is originally from the Mediterranean.
The word Lavender is fairly obviously from the French lavandre but the Latin word this itself was derived from is less clear. There are two candidates: livere (meaning "blueish") or lavare (meaning "to wash" - the theory being that soaps and bathwater were scented with lavender). During Roman times, half a kilo of lavender flowers cost the equivalent of a month's wages for a farm labourer.
The flower buds can be used as a culinary ingredient and intensify in flavour when dried so one or two flower heads are often enough to flavour a dish.
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