Greenlives Walks - South West Coast Path <

St. Ives to Zennor

Difficulty - Moderate - Length - 10.5 km - Ascent - 710 m


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ST. IVES TO ZENNOR Stage 30 (28th May 2009).

After breakfast in St. Ives we set of from the edge of the Island at 10.30. Under a layer of stratus cloud, but almost no wind, we walked above Porthmeor beach before taking a track towards Clodgy Point. Up to here the path has been easy, on a gentle upward gradient, but the coast beyond is wild and impressive. The path winds through rocks, making the going quite slow.

Recent flash floods in the area just 4 weeks ago emphasised to us the potential risks. The floods killed three people. Six bridges between St. Ives and Morvah had been washed away by the swollen rivers so the path was closed on two sections of this walk. We made a short detour inland from Carn Naun to a former water mill, rewarded with views of a pair of buzzards (?) nesting on a ruined mine building.

From the tiny settlement of Treveal we retuurned to the coast path, to see several seals in the calm watwrs of the cove next to The Carracks rocks. We had to detour off the path again at Zennor Head so went inland to Zennor, for tea at a combined café and backpackers hostel. Then we caught the #508 bus from just outside the village back to St Ives, jumping straight on to a #146 bus to Penzance, reaching the hotel at about 17.15.

Total time including stops 4h 30m 10.5km Ascent 710 m Walking time 3h 15m<

The South West Coast Path is the longest of the official UK National Trails, running from Minehead in Somerset round the English south west peninsula coast to Poole in Dorset. The total length is just over 1000 kilometres or, more precisely, 630 miles. Only very dedicated walkers could contemplate completing the whole walk in one go, although plenty of people have done just this. Received opinion is that it would take around 6 weeks, even for the most dedicated.

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