Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
With its conglomeration of fudge-sellers and souvenir shops,
Lizard village
makes a pretty
disappointing gateway, so most people just park in the village and make the mile-long
stroll down to the point itself. A steep track leads down to the long-disused lifeboat station
and shingly cove. In May and June the Lizard is one of the best places in Cornwall to spot
basking sharks, and if you're really lucky you might catch sight of a Cornish chough (for
more on Cornwall's wildlife see Environment,
Click here
)
.
Just inland from the point is the
Lizard Lighthouse Heritage Centre
(
01326-290202;
ht-
tp://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/lizard.html?tab=visitor
; admission with tour adult/child £7/4,
without tour £2/1; 11am-5pm Mar-Oct, check website for exact days)
. Commissioned in 1752, the light-
house was automated in the '90s and since 2009 has housed a museum exploring the
area's maritime history, encompassing everything from weather prediction to semaphore
and shipwrecks. You can wander around the lighthouse grounds, but it's well worth taking
the informative guided tour; ask nicely and the kids might even get to let off a blast from
the station foghorn.
More craggy scenery can be found further east at
Housel Bay
and the wild promontories
of Pen Olver and Bass Point. Further along the coast past Church Cove is
Cadgwith
, an
idyllic huddle of thatched houses and fishermen's cottages at the foot of a lung-bustingly
steep hill. Fishing boats still run out from the cove in pursuit of local crabs and lobsters,
and you'll see their pots piled up beside the village beach - but it's an increasingly tough
business these days, as documented by Monty Halls in his TV series
The Fisherman's Ap-
prentice
.
It's worth walking up the cliffs to the 200ft collapsed blowhole called the
Devil's Frying
Pan
, which gets its name from the way it spits out water during heavy seas.
Five miles from Lizard Point near Kuggar is
Kennack Sands
, a popular family paddling
spot with plenty of sand, seaweed-stocked rockpools and beach shops.
