From 1870 to 1970, Porthcurno valley was a hub of international communications and, for a time between the First and Second World Wars, was the largest submarine cable station in the world. Up to two million words per day could be transmitted using up to 14 cables. It was chosen over Falmouth to reduce the risk of damage to cables by shipping. Even today, fibre-optic cables land at Porthcurno, connecting the UK to the internet backbone.
In common with most of the other beaches around Penwith, the sand at Porthcurno is composed of fragments of seashell. Larger pieces of shell, and some intact shells, are usually washed up along the high-tide line. These mostly seem to be venus clams which are very pale in colour and may explain the particularly white sand around this coast. Another factor is that, unlike the slate in much of the rest of Cornwall, the granite here does not weather into minute flakes which mix into the sand and darken the colour.
Tides in the Atlantic are closely aligned with the moon's position above the Earth which takes just under 25 hours on average to return to the same position; this is slightly more than 24, as the Earth has to chase the moon's orbit. The tides therefore shift forward by at just under an hour each day so that over a 7 day week, low tide and high tide have approximately changed places (e.g. no beach in the afternoon vs a huge beach in the afternoon).
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.
The white pyramid on the cliffs between Porthcurno and Logan Rock marks the place where, in 1880, the first submarine telegraph cable connected Britain to France and a transatlantic cable between France and Canada. However the pyramid has not been erected for sentimental reasons: there was once a communications hut where the cable came ashore which was quickly adopted by shipping as a navigational aid. When the hut was demolished, something needed to replace it as a navigational marker - hence the white pyramid.
A few different factors all combine to vary the colour of the sea:
A glass in your hand might lure you into thinking otherwise, but pure water is faintly blue. The main wavelengths that the chemical bonds in water absorb are either in the infra-red or ultra-violet, and not in the visible spectrum, which is why a glass of pure water does not look coloured. However one fairly obscure harmonic of the vibrations in the water molecule corresponds to the wavelength of red light and so water very weakly absorbs the red from white light, giving it a very slightly blue tinge. If there is enough water, both the blue tinge and reflection of blue light by any suspended particles make it look blue.
Another factor is that the surface of the ocean acts as a mirror and reflects the colour of the sky and this is why it may appear grey under a cloudy sky. Under a blue sky, this intensifies the blueness.
In shallow water, the sand which is golden in Cornwall due to fragments of seashell, reflects yellow light and this combines with the blue from seawater to generate colours from green to turquoise. The ocean also sometimes appears green due to the presence of planktonic plant life.
The Cornish language has a word glas (often appearing in place names as "glaze") which is the Swiss Army Knife of sea colour descriptions. It means blue, or green, or grey.
Some of the tourism literature used to say that the green colour of the sea in Cornwall was due to copper dissolved in the water. This is total nonsense. In order to be visible, the concentration of copper salts have to be incredibly high which would never happen with an entire Atlantic Ocean to dilute it. The highest copper levels are found in estuaries fed by rivers into which mines drain. Here there is at most in the order of a few micrograms per litre and this is carefully monitored by the Environment Agency.
The beach at Pedn Vounder is virtually covered at high tide, but at low tide, particularly on a spring tide, a large, sandy beach is revealed. It is often lumped with Porthcurno in tourist literature as it's the more photogenic of the two beaches due to its shallow sandbanks. On a low spring tide it's sometimes possible to walk along the beach from Porthcurno, but for the rest of the time, access is down a fairly steep path from the Coast Path which ends in an awkward climb on all fours down the rocks onto the beach. The beach consists of sand bars which cause some areas to flood faster than others when the tide comes in, so risk being caught by the tide. Until it was heavily promoted on social media, it was fairly deserted due to the difficult path and was used by naturists. Some do still use it, which can surprise visitors. The name of the beach is the Cornish for "end of the lane".
Logan Rock is balanced on the top of the outcrop on the headland ahead.
Logan Rock is a granite boulder of about 90 tons, originally known as Men Omborth (meaning "balanced stone"), and is the most famous of all the rocking stones in Cornwall. This is in part due to an account in "Antiquities of Cornwall" from 1754 which stated: "it is morally impossible that any lever, or indeed force, however applied in a mechanical way, can remove it from its present situation." This challenge proved too much of a temptation for the Victorians and in 1824, Lieutenant Hugh Goldsmith and ten or twelve of his crew of the cutter HMS Nimble, armed with bars and levers, rocked the huge granite boulder until it fell from its cliff-top perch. There was a local outcry and the Admiralty ordered that the rock was put back. This required the help of more than sixty men with block and tackle, but the Logan Rock was finally repositioned and returned to "rocking condition", although it is said that it does not rock as easily as it did originally. It is still possible for one adult to cause it to rock but some knowledge of where to apply the force is required.
A number of large rocking stones exist around Cornwall and are invariably given the name Logan Rock or Logan Stone. These are formed by weathering, where a horizontal crack is eroded away leaving a rounded boulder balanced on a block of granite. The word "logan" (pronounced "logg-un") is thought to be derived from the Cornish dialect word "log", meaning "to rock like a drunken man".
The walk continues to the left, but first you may want to have a quick look at Treryn Dinas.
Once back on the route, follow the path alongside the ramparts and over a stream to reach a gate.
Treryn Dinas is a clifftop fort dating from the Iron Age. It consists of a huge outer earth bank which is several metres high in places. Inside this is a large flat area that once might have been settled. Beyond this are a series of banks and ditches before the narrowest point in the headland, where there is a final ditch and stone-fronted rampart. The reason for the inner ramparts is not well understood. It could have been a more fortified position to retreat to if the outer defences had been breached, but the inhospitable rock outcrop would not have been somewhere that a siege could have been withstood for long. Some historians have suggested that the smaller ramparts around the inner area could have been non-military, for example to separate off a ceremonial area from "the rabble".
In 2007, a 17th Century shipwreck was discovered in the English Channel, roughly 40 miles off Mount's Bay. The gold and silver coins salvaged from the wreck were valued at half a billion US dollars, making it possibly the highest financial value of any shipwreck yet discovered. The wreck lies just outside UK territorial waters, and so the US-based salvage company was able to claim the find for themselves.
Penberth Cove was documented in 1580 as Porth Penbyrthe. Many elements of the fishery visible today date back to the 18th century which is one of the reasons it was selected as one of the main filming locations for the BBC's Poldark series. The capstan dates from the 19th Century and was used to winch boats up the beach before the electric winch was installed in the 1960s.
Three-cornered leeks grow alongside the path here.
During late winter or early spring, if you encounter a patch of plants with white bell-shaped flowers, smelling strongly of onions, and with long, narrow leaves then they are likely to be three-cornered leeks. Once you're familiar with their narrow, ridged leaves, you'll be able to spot these emerging from late October onwards.
All plants in the onion family including three-cornered leeks are poisonous to dogs. Keep dogs away from the plant and wash their paws if they come into contact with it.
Flowering plants have evolved a complex double-fertilisation process where one sperm fertilises the egg whilst a second sperm combines with other nuclei in the cell to create a nutrient-rich tissue. This gives the seed a head start so it can out-compete others (e.g. conifers which don't have this). This also allows flowering plants to produce viable seeds more quickly: whilst conifers take around 18 months to produce a new batch of seeds, many flowering plants produce a batch of seeds each year and some can produce seeds more than once a year.
Gunnera looks like giant rhubarb but the leaves stems are spiky. It tends to favour damp places as quite a lot of water is needed to supply its huge leaves.
The plant has a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria which live between its cells. The cyanobacteria, also known as "blue-green algae", are photosynthetic and also supply the host plant with nitrogen which allows it to colonise poor soils.
The fields here are sometimes used for crops such as wheat.
Wheat was formed by hybridisations between wild grasses which was then spread through domestication. The cultivation of wheat is thought to have begun nearly 12,000 years ago in southeast Turkey.
Remains of wheat from 8000 years ago have been found in Britain which indicate trade with Europe. Until around 6500 BC, it was possible to walk between Britain and the rest of Europe via an area of low lying land known as Doggerland. As sea levels rose after the last Ice Age, the North Sea flooded this, making Britain an island.
Because each of the hybridisations that formed wheat were rare events, and because there were multiple stages of hybridisation involved, domesticated bread wheat is all from a common ancestry and therefore there is very little genetic variety. This narrow gene pool makes the risk of a catastrophic disease quite high. Since the 20th Century, work has been underway to broaden the wheat gene pool to produce disease-resistant strains through a number of techniques including crossing wheat varieties from different parts of the world, hybridising with wild grasses, and more recently through direct genetic manipulation.
The Ramblers Association and National Farmers Union suggest some "dos and don'ts" for walkers which we've collated with some info from the local Countryside Access Team.
Do
Don't
The standing stone in the field is likely to have been erected as a cattle rubbing stone.
In pre-industrial times, cattle were allowed to roam over quite large areas and could therefore find a suitable tree to relieve an itch. In the Victorian period, farming became more intensive and cattle were moved into enclosed fields. It was quickly discovered that an itchy cow could wreak havoc with walls and fences so dedicated rubbing stones were positioned in the centre of some fields to minimise cow damage. In some cases, new stones were quarried specifically for the purpose and others, existing prehistoric standing stones or even Celtic crosses were unceremoniously re-used.
Electric fences are typically powered from a low voltage source such as a car battery which charges a capacitor to release a periodic pulse of high voltage electricity. This is often audible as a quiet "crack" which is a good indicator that a fence is powered. As with the high-voltage shock caused by static electricity, the current is not high enough to cause serious injury but touching an electric fence is nevertheless unpleasant. If you are answering the call of nature in the vicinity of an electric fence, be mindful of the conductivity of electrolyte solutions!
The settlement across the field on the right is Treen.
The settlement of Treen between Porthcurno and Penberth Cove is first recorded in 1321 when it was spelt "Trethyn". It is thought to have been Tredyn originally, with a meaning along the lines of "castle farm". This explains why there is also another settlement now called Treen near the Iron Age cliff castle on Gurnard's Head, near Zennor. Arranging to meet at the inn in Treen could therefore be problematic, as both have a pub although these, fortunately, do have different names.
In the early 20th Century, a Roman denarius coin was found in Treen, between Porthcurno and Penberth Cove, suggesting there may have been some Roman occupation of the area. There have also been finds of Roman artefacts at the Trereen Dinas cliff castle: there are records from Tudor times of a brass pot full of Roman coins being found, and a Roman brooch was found in 2006.
The red telephone box was the result of a competition in 1924 to design a more aesthetically-pleasing telephone kiosk that would be acceptable to the London Metropolitan Boroughs who weren't impressed by the Post Office's first 1921 model made from concrete. Three subsequent versions were used mostly in London. The final design was created in 1935 to commemorate the jubilee of George V and was deployed widely across the country.
The bright red telephone box was initially not well-received and the Post Office was forced to use an alternative colour scheme (grey with red glazing bars) for areas of natural beauty. Ironically, many of the telephone boxes preserved in these areas have since been painted - the now iconic - red.
The Logan Rock Inn is short distance up the lane to the right.
The Inn dates back to the 16th Century and until late Victorian times there was an old maypole outside the inn that is thought might have dated back as far as early mediaeval times.
Scientists have found that cows tend to lie down when the weather is cool but stand up when it's hot to improve air circulation and regulate their body temperature. The folklore about cows lying down being a sign of rain might well be due to the cold fronts causing precipitation being reflected in the "cow thermometer". Cows also lie down to sleep but they only sleep for about 4 hours a day.
The hills in the distance on the right are Chapel Carn Brea (left) and the Bartinney Downs (right).
Chapel Carn Brea is Britain's westernmost hill. Its geographical position has resulted in it being used as a WW2 lookout and for a navigational/warning beacon before this but the symbolic value of its location has also featured in its history.
On the slopes and summit of the hill are a number of burial sites dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. A long barrow on the slopes is particularly old, dating from the Early Neolithic. The structure on the summit, known as an entrance grave, is a Late Neolithic design found only in Penwith and the Isles of Scilly and would have originally been covered by a huge mound.
The hill is named after a 13th Century chapel which was erected on top of the prehistoric burial site on the summit but was little more than rubble by the 19th Century.
Some historic objects have been found in these fields including 16th Century pottery and a 14th Century heraldic pendant made of copper.
The standing stone is not recorded as significant so is likely to be another cattle rubbing stone.
Rabbit teeth continue to grow throughout their lives as an evolutionary adaptation to eating grass which contains abrasive silica. Consequently pet rabbits fed a diet with insufficient hay often get problems with overgrown teeth. However, cut grass from a mower should not be fed to rabbits as it ferments more quickly than fresh grass (impact and heat from the blades causes bruising and wilting which releases the carbohydrates) which results in bloated bunnies.
Unlike wheat, where the grains pop out fairly easily from their husks and simple threshing will release them, the husks of barley are firmly stuck to the grain. A mechanical dehulling process is used to free the grain which is then known as pot barley. This is often then steam-processed to remove the bran to create a polished form of barley grains known as pearl barley which contain less of the fibre. Despite being more expensive to produce, pearl barley seems to be sold at cheaper prices for human consumption than pot barley presumably due to higher levels of demand.
Trendrennen was first recorded as a manor in 1313, spelt very similarly as Trendrenen. The name is thought to come from the Cornish word for thorn bushes - dreyn. A number of cupped stones have been found built into the farm buildings and these are thought to be evidence that a settlement existed here in Roman times.
About half the starlings in the UK are year-round residents. From October until spring, these are joined by a migrant population from Eastern Europe where the winter temperatures are much colder.
If the fields are ploughed just before the spring, the low light from the winter sun picks out the threads of gossamer which can carpet the fields here.
Young spiders disperse by spinning several threads of silk which catch the wind and carry them away. The process is known as "ballooning" or "kiting" and the extremely thin strands of silk are known as gossamer. These very fine strands don't break in the wind because the silk is tougher than kevlar. Normally the spiders only travel a few metres in one "ride" but sailors far out to sea have reported spiders landing on their sails.
The word "gossamer" comes from a Middle English word gosesomer (literally "goose summer") which referred to late autumn when geese were at their best for eating. The same time of the year was when large numbers of cobwebs were most common so the name got applied to this too where it survived.
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.
During the Second World War, Cornish miners dug a series of tunnels to create an underground bomb-proof and gas-proof building, housing all the telegraph operations at Porthcurno. This also included a secret escape tunnel leading to a concealed entrance in a field. In total, 15,000 tons of rock were excavated and an office space was created in the excavated area complete with a pitched roof to shed seepage, a suspended ceiling and plastered walls. Porthcurno is ranked alongside Bletchley Park as one of the 6 key sites that were instrumental in ending WW2.
Known as "The Tunnels", the dry space at constant temperature proved to be the perfect environment for the sensitive telegraphy equipment and so operations stayed there after the war and the equipment continued to be upgraded until the 1970s. It now forms part of the Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications and houses the main museum displays.
As well as the telegraph station itself, the site at Porthcurno included the Cable and Wireless Training College. At the time this was the world’s leading engineering college for telegraph technology. When telegraph operations ceased at Porthcurno in 1970, the training college continued running on the site until 1993.
The museum at Porthcurno came about from a project started by former employees of Cable and Wireless and was initially based at their headquarters at Holborn in London. This included archives from Cable and Wireless going back to the 1860s. A charitable trust (known as the PK Trust, after the telegraph code for Porthcurno) was formed in 1997 to redevelop the company's historic site at Porthcurno. The telegraph museum opened in 1998 and in 1999, the archive was transferred to Porthcurno. In 2020 the museum was rebranded as "PK Porthcurno: Museum of Global Communications".
Some of the largest specimens of the greater weever have been caught by anglers at Porthcurno. However, these rarely come into shallow water. Their cousin, the lesser weever is sometimes found on Cornish beaches during the summer.
During hot weather, weever fish migrate to Britain from the Mediterranean. They bury themselves in the sand where they are camouflaged, and ambush small fish in shallow water. To protect against predators, they have spines that inject a nerve toxin; if trodden on, this can be very painful. It's therefore a good idea either to wear some form of footwear in the sea or to shuffle your feet through the sand which is more likely to scare away any fish. If you are unlucky enough to tread on a weever, get your foot into hot water as soon as possible as this denatures the venom. Most lifeguards have a kettle on standby (and although its primary purpose might be cups of tea rather than weever stings, they will forego a cuppa in the interests of pain relief).
The facade of a house built into the cliff was created by Rowena Cade in the 1920s as a wendy house for her nieces and nephews. The expression "wendy house" has come from the small house in Peter Pan that the lost boys built for Wendy Darling.
Originally the one at Porthcurno had windows and a door but these were destroyed by vandals and then it was used as a latrine by visitors to the beach. It was eventually blocked-up with concrete to stop it being a public health risk.
The beach at Penberth Cove is dominated by the slipway and at high tide, either side of this are granite boulders. At low tide, some sand is revealed but most of the time the slipway reaches the sea. Dogs are not allowed on the slipway for food hygiene reasons - fish for human consumption is landed here. The small fishing fleet uses an electric winch to haul the boats up the slipway. The inlet itself is relatively sheltered but outside this the currents are very strong so any swimming needs to take this and the boats into account.
In Celtic times, fields were small and surrounded by banks or stone walls. The fields were used both for growing crops such as oats, wheat or rye, and for keeping livestock. The field shape was round or square, rather than rectangular, so that the stones didn't have to be carried further than necessary. The small size was because they needed to be weeded by hand, in many ways similar to a modern-day allotment.
Foxgloves have a life cycle which spans two years. The seeds germinate in spring and during their first year they produce a "rosette" of large, velvety green leaves with toothed edges. These are particularly noticeable from October onwards once other vegetation has died back. The leafy foxglove plants remain dormant throughout the winter, ready for a quick start in the spring.
In spring, whilst foxgloves seeds are germinating, the established foxglove plants from the previous year start producing their characteristic flower spike. Once these have been fertilised and the seeds have been produced then the plant dies. One foxglove plant can produce over 2 million seeds.
Foxgloves are reliant on bumblebees for pollination and bumblebees are much more active when the weather is good. Partly, as an insurance policy against bad weather, foxgloves have evolved to stagger their flowering over several weeks, starting with the flowers at the base of the stalk and working up to the top, where the higher flowers protrude over other vegetation that has grown up in that time.
The male and female parts of a foxglove flower mature at different times to help avoid self-fertilisation. This also ties in with the flowers maturing at the bottom of the spike first as pollinators often start at the lowest flower and then work upwards. They land on the mature female flowers first with a cargo of pollen from another plant, and then leave via the mature male flowers with a new load of pollen.
Although nearly all foxgloves are purple, a fairly rare white form does occur and an even more rare pink form sometimes occurs along with this.
As well as attracting insects, the brightly coloured foxglove flowers serve as a warning for animals that the plants contain toxins. All parts of the plant can cause a range of ill-effects in humans from nausea to heart and kidney problems which can be fatal.
The common name "foxglove" dates back many hundreds of years but the origin is unknown. The "gloves" almost certainly refers to the shape of the flowers, and the Latin name Digitalis (finger-like) is along similar lines. The curious part is the "fox" and many different suggestions have been made as to where it came from. It is possible that it is a corruption of another word. One suggestion is "folks" which was once used to mean "fairies".
If you come across a gorse bush covered in red threads, this is dodder - a parasitic plant. The red colour is because the dodder contains no chlorophyll. Instead of manufacturing its own food by photosynthesis, it pierces another plant (often gorse) and siphons nutrients from this. Its leaves have shrunk to tiny proportions for the same reason - they aren't needed to catch any sunlight.
Once a dodder seed sprouts, the dodder seedling only has 5-10 days of energy reserves to reach a host plant before it dies. It uses chemo-sensors (equivalent to taste and smell) to locate and home in on a green plant.
The name comes directly from mediaeval English and is thought to be unrelated to the verb "to dodder". It also has a range of folk names - some refer to the colour (e.g. fireweed and devil's guts), some refer to its parasitic nature (strangleweed and beggarweed) and others refer to its structure (wizard's net and witch's hair).
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.
Alexanders are a member of the carrot family and grow along roadsides in places similar to cow parsley. The leaves are more solid than the lacy cow parsley leaves and the flowers are yellow rather than white. The name arises because the plant was introduced to the UK by the Romans and was known as the "pot herb of Alexandria". It is also sometimes known as horse parsley.
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.
Another place that alexanders are commonly found is near the sites of mediaeval settlements, in particular religious settlements where they were cultivated by monks as a vegetable. In mediaeval cuisine they were used as an alternative to celery (which was a more bitter plant back then). It was traditionally one of the "pot herbs" that were added to stews and the dried seeds can also be used as a spice. Alexanders were particularly useful during lean winters as its new growth is available in the late Autumn, before many other spring greens.
All parts of the alexanders plant can be eaten and it is a good source of iron and vitamins A and C. The flavour has been described as somewhere between parsley and angelica. However, foraging alexanders is not recommended unless you are experienced at identifying it because novices can confuse it with hemlock (the most poisonous plant in the UK - just a few leaves from this can kill you).
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.
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.
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.
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is the largest of the tuna family and can reach over half a tonne in weight and live up to 40 years. The fish roam over wide areas of the Atlantic and can occasionally be seen off the Cornish coast. In previous centuries, when they were more common, they featured amongst the catch of Westcountry fishermen. They used to be known as "tunny" in the UK and it was only in the 20th Century that the Californian term "tuna" became commonplace.
Bluefin tuna are now endangered as a result of severe overfishing since the 1960s, particularly of the spawning fish which migrate to gather in large numbers in their spawning grounds. Greenpeace rank it alongside the tiger and giant panda in its list of species to worry seriously about.
Fishery management has been frustratingly slow to be put in place but may finally just about be starting to reverse the population decline. Nevertheless numbers are still dangerously low and vulnerable to illegal fishing for sale on the black market. A number of organisations therefore strongly advise against eating bluefin tuna both to give it a chance to recover and to stamp out the black market.
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.