Cornwall Walk 5: Zennor to St Ives

Date: Thursday 24th March
Distance: 6 miles (or possibly 6.5, signposts are a bit inconsistent)
Route: Coastal path all the way!

This is a walk that we've been putting off for a while - the Cornwall Coast Path book calls it "the toughest six miles of the coast path", which is pretty off-putting - in our humble opinion, it certainly didn't feel as tough as the Pendeen to Zennor stretch.

Where the book redeems itself, however, is in referring to it as "amongst the most stunning" - this is mainly due to the walk seeming to be closer to the sea than some of the other stretches, some outstanding cliffs and rocks and a well-maintained path.

Although there are obviously lots of people heading along the path from St Ives, there didn't seem to be as many of us heading in the other direction from Zennor. Going this way means that you end up in St Ives, with its many attractions (shops! cream teas! pasties! the Tate!); going the other way has the advantage of a potential pub stop at the Tinners Arms.

We started the walk from Zennor village - there are infrequent buses out here from St Ives (more in summer, obviously) or you can get a taxi out here. It's a short walk down to Zennor Head, then the path "hugs the coastline sending you on an endless series of ups and downs". The good - and surprising thing - about this walk, was that there were actually quite a few flat stretches between the ups and the downs, so at least there was some recovery time built in. I would still recommend a stick, though.

Given the proximity to St Ives and the glorious sunshine, there were plenty of people out and about on the path - from the charity walker with the messed-up feet who had started his coastal path walk in Minehead to the chatty Welsh people who had missed the bus in St Ives and most memorably, the topless man listening to Radio 3 on a transistor radio (not an image you would necessarily want in your head, I'll admit). We also spotted a solitary seal diving around in one of the bays - a slightly more welcome sight!

Once you get within a mile of St Ives, it is clear where your destination is - the path brings you out near the Tate and Porthmeor Sands, although it only takes a few minutes longer to cut through to the busy streets of Wharf Road and Fore Street and the vast expanse of Harbour Beach.

I wish we hadn't been swayed by the guide book on this walk and put it off, however I'm pleased that we managed to do it today. It's also a milestone walk for us, as it means we have now walked the whole path from St Ives to Penzance in various chunks over the past few years - obviously at 40 miles in total, it's not exactly a huge distance but the many ups and downs along the route do make it feel like an achievement and have got us wondering "what next?." It's difficult to top the Cornwall Coast Path for scenery, weather (most of the time) and ease of use (most of the time, again). This won't be the last time we walk down here, I'm sure.

Cornwall Walk 4: Sennen Cove to St Just

Date: Wednesday 23rd March
Distance: 5.5 miles
Route: Along beach out of Sennen, up onto cliff tops and along coastal path to Cape Cornwall, then inland to St Just village

If Tuesday was all pain and fog, Wednesday was all sunshine and smiles - a lovely stretch of coastal path and beautiful blue skies, with only a few aches from the previous day's misadventures.

We started up by parking up in the free car park in St Just village, then catching the bus to Sennen Cove. The walk started off gently with a stroll along the vast sandy beach (with surfers providing a bit of distraction), before climbing slowly up onto the cliffs and along the coast - not too much ascending and descending and whilst the walking sticks came in handy they weren't essential.

Porth Nanven is a very picturesque boulder-strewn beach (complete with car park) that breaks up the cliffs and is a good place to hang around and eat lunch, then the path continues on to turn into a stony car-wide track over the hillside to Cape Cornwall (see Walk 1), from where you follow the road inland to the village of St Just.


Not much more to say, to be honest, just a really straightforward walk punctuated by ultra-dramatic scenery - perfect.

Cornwall Walk 3: Pendeen Watch to Zennor (and back again)

Date: Tuesday 22nd March
Distance: 7 miles coastal path + 7 miles back by road (!)
Route: Coastal path from Pendeen Watch to Zennor Head via Porthmeor Cove and Gurnard's Head, then back along the road

In many ways, this was similar to Sunday's walk - go out of the lighthouse, get onto the coastal path, keep going till you have had a good walk and reach a village you can get back from. The only snag was that there just wasn't a way back that didn't entail either waiting around for a day for a bus back or paying over the odds for a taxi. So we walked - and then we walked back. And frankly, it hurt. With most of the walk back in cloud/ fog, not only were we walking along a lonely road back, most of the time we couldn't really see that far ahead. So, the moral of this story is, if you're going to rely on public transport, get that bit out of the way first, so that you can end up back at your car. I don't imagine Julia Bradbury has these issues.

The walk itself felt more lonely that the other ones we have done this week - although the path was still pretty clearly marked, we didn't encounter many other people and there were far fewer benches than on other stretches. Again, we were passing by deserted mines (with associated dire warnings).

Although most of the walk was on the cliff tops the climbs didn't seem too extreme at first - it was only once we got past Gurnard's Head and close to Zennor that the steepness level seemed to crank up a gear (at the same time as our tiredness increased!). I would definitely recommend doing this one with a walking stick - by the end you will definitely need something to lean on.

Notable wildlife spots were a stripy snake (possibly an adder?) that quickly slithered away and a seal bobbing up and down near Porthmeor Cove, where we stopped for lunch. The key factor in this walk was the weather, however - one moment the sun was shining (as per the photos), the next we were engulfed in fog/ cloud - thankful for those extra layers of clothing!

I wouldn't really want to do this walk again (not even just the coastal bit), as it feels more like something we had to do to get another stretch of coastal path out of the way, rather than a walk with fantastic views or sights or scenery, but a lot of this could be due to the fog.

Of all the walks we have done, this one was probably the one where you felt there was most likelihood of coming round a corner to find Neil Oliver standing on a rocky pinnacle, hair flying in the wind, declaiming "the people of this island are verrrrrry rrrrrresilient." And least likelihood of a nice cafe, sadly.

Cornwall Walk 2: The Lizard Circular

Date: Monday 21st March
Distance: 6.5 miles
Route: From Lizard Village to Kynance Cove, along the coastal path past Lizard Point to Church Cove and back to the village

If Sunday was all about going west, Monday was all about going south - to the most southerly part of mainland Britain, Lizard Point. This is reckoned to be one of the most walked bits of the coastal path, which is wholly understandable, given how beautiful it is and how easy the coastal path is to follow here.

This walk comes from the AA 1001 Walks in Britain book - a massive folder full of walks that lets you pull out a relevant page and stick it in the helpfully supplied plastic folder, so you don't have to lug a big book around with you. If you're going to a different bit of the country but don't necessarily want to buy a walk book specific to that area, this always come in handy and the walks are usually very easy to follow. It's often available cheaply from the Book People too.

We did this walk before, a couple of years ago, and it was so good we wanted to do it again. Monday dawned foggy (something you are very aware of if your bedroom window is 10 feet away from a foghorn), so a drive down to the Lizard was an oppportunity to see if the weather was any better on the South Coast (it wasn't much different, to be honest, which is why the photos are a bit cloudy).

The walk starts off on a footpath from The Lizard village down to Kynance Cove - even if you don't fancy the whole six and a half miles, this bit alone is well worth the effort and you can even park at the Cove if you feel so inclined. Kynance Cove is spectacular - a vast sandy beach littered with ridiculously large rocks and fringed by an impossibly bright turquoise sea. Once you have clambered around a bit there is also a National Trust cafe (complete with very impressive solar-tiled roof), from which you can drink in both the outstanding scenery and copious amounts of tea.

Suitably refreshed, you go back to the coastal path, climbing steeply up the hill for yet another great view of Kynance Cove, before turning your back on it to walk along the path for another mile and a quarter - and another cup of tea at Lizard Point (bit of a recurring theme here). The path becomes tarmac for a while (and a lot busier on the route between the Point and the car park) but the crowds thin out as you carry on past the lighthouse, the fantastically situated Housel Bay Hotel (with its tempting "refreshing beer" signs), an old Marconi Wireless station, Lloyds Signal Station and coastguard's lookout point. Once you get around to the lifeboat station (currently in the process of getting itself a new ramp built), you turn back inland.

Six and a half miles doesn't sound that far - particularly when we will often walk 10 or 12 miles in the Chilterns - but the constant climbing and descending mean that at the end of this walk you will definitely feel you have earned yourself another pot of tea - or a pasty - or maybe some nice Cornish ice cream...

Cornwall Walk 1: Pendeen Watch to St Just

Date: Sunday 20th March
Distance: 5 miles approx
Route: Cornish Coastal Path from Pendeen Watch to Cape Cornwall then inland to St Just

No walking last weekend - but hopefully walking every day this week (weather permitting, luckily the sun has been shining for most of today)

We've rented a holiday cottage at Pendeen lighthouse, which, aside from having the biggest pack of welcome groceries ever seen, is right next to the coastal path - so no excuse for slacking off and lots of excuses for eating Cornish pasties and cream teas!

Having spent most of yesterday driving down to Cornwall, we didn't want to drive anywhere today, so today's walk was a case of "go outside, turn right, follow the coastal path".

It's exceptionally difficult to get lost, as the path is well signposted, with occasional benches along the way. This particular stretch is not too strenuous (certainly not compared to the path near Mousehole or Tintagel) and the theme of the day today was mines - this isn't the most picturesque bit of the coastal path but the multiple ruined tin mine buildings and pumps make for striking scenery and the derelict chimney stacks and collapsed buildings give the whole area a Roman ruin feel against the backdrop of steep cliffs and bright blue sky and sea.

Spring is also here with a vengeance, with vast quantities of flowers (daffodils, primroses, buttercups, periwinkles) and plants (notably some very smelly wild garlic and lots of gorse) making up for the lack of wildlife along the path.

The Trailfinder Cornwall Coast Path guide comes in handy from time to time, particularly if you want to know the names of the rocks you are walking past or the villages you can see from a distance, but it is by no means essential.

The path makes its way through the middle of abandoned mines (and slightly melodramatic signs urging you to stay on the path, on pain of upside-down death) to Cape Cornwall, which was long thought to be the most westerly point of the UK (before Land's End claimed the honours). From there it's a 15 minute walk along the road into the village of St Just, a very good Sunday lunch at the King's Arms and a bus back to Pendeen village. A good, not too taxing, start to what looks like it will be a fantastic week.

Walk 7: Henley againly

Date: Sunday 6th March
Distance: 9.5 miles
Route: Hambleden to Henley via Alton and Remenham Hill, back via Fawley Court and Temple Island Meadows

After weeks of grey days, today was the best walking weather we've had in ages - clear blue skies, lots of sunshine - plus a walk that we couldn't remember having done for a long while, combining familiar locations (Henley, Hambleden, the Thames), but making us see them in a different light.

Although this one had lots in common with Walk 1 (below), it took a totally different route, including open fields and the much quieter and less manicured west side of the Thames. Full walk details are in the Time Out Book of Country Walks Volume 2, where it is also Walk 7. Rather than getting the train to Henley, we parked up in the car park on the road to Hambleden, so that we had a choice of pub lunch in Henley.

The route led into the village of Hambleden, up onto the hillside, down to Hambleden Weir (scene of some pretty dangerous kayaking today), over the lock and up the hill to Alton (and the piglets in the photo above), then over more hillsides and open fields (plus a very large private garden) to Henley.

After lunch we headed out of town then into the marshy meadows alongside the Thames (although the path is rougher and occasionally muddier than the one on the other side, far fewer people venture down here so it is both more peaceful and a lot more overgrown). The general theme here seems to be lots of footbridges that look much more precarious than they are, punctuated by marshes, clumps of reeds, signs warning of the danger of hemlock and the occasional grand building (Fawley Court and Temple Island).

It seems a shame to leave the river behind but the path veers off up into the woods, with the only really steep climb of the day, following a path through woodland along the hilltop, with the village of Hambleden down to the right, then circling back through the churchyard.    

This is definitely one of the better walks we have done this year - and, whilst the beautiful weather and evidence of spring (goslings, calves, piglets etc) helped to make it memorable, its still an easy walk, with fantastic scenery, which I'm sure we will do again and again.