First time here, though I have stopped often along the North Cliffs as there is a rather pleasant and flat walk giving you marvellous open sea views and the added bonus of wild flowers. I especially like it in late summer for the different shades of heather that bloom along this coastal path.
Now though, in May, it is the time for Sea Pinks / Thrift / Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima) which grows all along these cliffs. Mixed in are the yellow common kidney vetch / woundwort (Anthyllis vulneraria) with its woolly appearance and what is often mistaken for white bluebells, but are really three-cornered leeks that smell and taste like mild spring onions.
Basset’s Cove is opposite to the north entrance into Tehidy Country Park and the last beach before you arrive at Portreath on the north Cornish coast. I say beach, but looking at the precarious, meandering route down to it, which has been barricaded off because of landslips, I imagine the only way onto this strip of rocky/sandy beach is by kayak. Unless you are a seal.
There is a decent car park though and it must be a lovely spot in the summer for a picnic and to watch the sun set over the Celtic Sea.
Oh how beautiful. I remember vigorous walks along the Cornish cliffs with my cousins when I was a child, up and down, and and down, I imagine that you appreciate the flat one!
Oh yes! As a child I loved climbing, but now the knees appreciate the flat.
Oh, lovely….the sea pinks and the vetch
So lovely. Glad I came along Jude 🙂 🙂
I loved the picnics on Cornish cliffs as a child, when we used to stay with a relative in Penryn every summer.. On one really hot day, my dad actually dived off a cliff into the sea to swim. I remember my mum screaming, and that it took him an hour to walk back after finding a path that led back up. Mum shouted at him for frightening her, and told him he could have got killed. He just shrugged and said, “I was too hot”.
Best wishes, Pete.
Scary! He was lucky not to have hit a rock.
I lover this kind of walk. Fabulous.
Oh no I’m homesick for Cornwall already after just a few days back home. That’s a beach I haven’t been to yet….and you’ve cleared up a faux pas on our part, we thought that scent was a wild garlic (although we knew it didn’t look like the garlic we see regularly elsewhere)….so it’s a leek! You learn something new every day, thank you for clearing that one up for us…
It’s strange that I haven’t seen wild garlic in Cornwall, but it’s all over Devon, north and south.
If and when you visit Padstow, I can tell you exactly where to find a whole crop growing on a wall!
Wonderful photography 👌🙏🌷
Thank you ❤️
Lovely photos. I don’t remember seeing such a wide, level path on the west coast of Cornwall. They’re mostly ups and downs. We used to have a jack russell terrier when I was a kid and walking the coast path was the only time I ever saw her tired!
That’s because there aren’t very many!
Gorgeous photos, Jude! The thrift here is just about over but that looks glorious. You’ve picked a lovely place to tippy toe 🙂 🙂