Lizard to Coverack: South West Coast Path Day 27 Guide

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Waking up with perhaps the stiffest legs known to mankind, I decided almost immediately that today would be a shorter day. I hadn’t technically hit 20 miles on yesterday’s walk, but apparently falling 300 yards short didn’t change how I felt this morning.

With that in mind, I eased into the day, brewing myself a coffee and waiting for the tent to dry out from last night’s rain. Dawdle as I might, though, I still found myself walking out of the campsite before 9 a.m., a solid half-hour before the first cafe in the village opened for breakfast.

Now if I was a sensible person, I’d have just waited. Sat in the sun, maybe made myself another coffee, watched the world go by, that kind of thing. Because I’m a masochist I just wanted to get my day started, I didn’t do any of that.

Instead I walked back down the path I’d come up the evening before, rejoined the Coast Path where I’d left it, and started out on a loop around the bottom of the peninsula. This early in the morning, it felt somehow even more isolated than yesterday; I met one dog walker in the 25 minutes it took to get to Lizard Point.

This is the most southerly place in mainland Britain, yet unlike its busy theme park of a cousin at Land’s End, there were maybe half a dozen other people there when I arrived. It’s a much more low-key affair, just a couple of cafes that hadn’t yet opened, a little art gallery, a gift shop, National Trust carpark and toilets, and not much else.

There wasn’t even a photographer charging £11 for a picture in front of a signpost. Much to my disappointment, obviously.

There had been no shortage of rugged cliffs and crashing waves in the last few weeks, but I think this part of the Lizard peninsula takes the cake. The wind was blowing strongly as usual, but the sun was out, the seabirds were wheeling and diving just offshore, and the views were absolutely epic. What a great way to start the day.

I carried on past the lighthouse and high above Housel Bay for another 20 minutes, until I hit a junction with a signpost pointing back into Lizard village. The cafes in town were open now, and with the next food stop being 3+ miles away in Cadgwith, I had a decision to make. It didn’t take long.

I’m happy to report that I greatly enjoyed my fry-up at Coast Coffee Bar, even if I had to walk an extra half-mile each way to get it. At least it was only uphill in one direction, right?

Back out on the coast, this time with a full belly and much more energy, it was hard to miss the old Lloyd’s signal station at Bass Point thanks to the sign a few feet high on the outside. The blue skies from earlier this morning had mostly disappeared for now, but there was no sign of rain. There wouldn’t be any for the rest of the day either, a distinct improvement on yesterday’s showers.

Strolling past the impressive lifeguard station tucked away in tiny Kilcobben Cove, the trail dropped down into Church Cove and up the other side. Other than that brief dip, though, this entire first part of today’s walk had stayed up high on the cliffs and was relatively flat all the way to Cadgwith.

Flat by the standards of the Coast Path, not actually flat, but by this point it was close enough. Either way, it made for really enjoyable, easy walking for the first couple of hours. Passing the dramatic collapsed cave known as the Devil’s Frying Pan and approaching Cadgwith, however, that was all about to change.

It started with a steep descent down into the village, which had a few visitors milling around and enjoying their crab sandwiches from the little restaurant on the main street. I didn’t need food, but I did need a drink, so I grabbed a Coke from the gift shop/corner store, and sat outside in the sun to drink it.

There were big empty spaces on the shelves inside: apparently the owner had been trying to sell the store for ages, but with no buyers, was in the process of closing it down. Sad to say, that probably means you won’t get to have the same soft-drink-in-the-sun experience I had. Lucky there’s a pub up the road instead, I guess.

Cadgwith is a pretty fishing village, full of attractive old stone buildings down by the little shingle beach. It’s not hard to see where that shingle comes from; looking back while catching my breath from the climb back up to the cliffs, it looked like half the nearby hillside had fallen away over the years and been deposited in the bay below.

The path didn’t stay on the cliff for long; less than ten minutes later it descended again, this time to the scenic old serpentine works in Carleon Cove. Serpentine in this case is a type of rock, and the mine dates back to the 1850s when this rock was very popular with artists and sculptors.

After crossing a wooden bridge over the burbling stream, take the path to the right to see the old mine buildings and remains of the waterwheel. Managed by the National Trust, it’s a nice spot to explore for a few minutes and procrastinate starting up the steep cliff on the other side.

Here, the trail passes seaward of a large holiday park: I couldn’t see it from the path, but to be fair, the views were much better in the other direction anyway. The wide bay stretched photogenically out for miles ahead, which looked spectacular even if it didn’t do wonders for my motivation to keep walking on what had become an increasingly rocky and uncomfortable trail.

Walking down the road to the busy little beach at Kennack Sands, the two cafes opposite each other both looked to be very popular. I picked Mora Cafe but probably should have chosen the other: my microwaved pasty was by far the worst I had in Cornwall and I couldn’t even finish it. At least the can of cider was cold, I guess.

The path hadn’t magically got any less rocky during my time at the cafe, but most of the remaining clouds had blown away, leaving blue sky and spectacular views along the length of the headland. Passing an old WWII pillbox, I made my way back up to the cliffs for the last five miles of the day.

The last section was simultaneously fantastic and awful, depending on which part of my body you’re asking. The coastline was simply beautiful, with dramatic rockfalls in small inaccessible coves, colourful bushes and trees clinging on wherever the cliffs hadn’t yet crumbled into the ocean.

The weather was perfect for walking, and other than two steep valleys, the path even stayed somewhat flat as it cut across the headland at end of Compass Cove and then looped around Black Head. There’s a white stone shelter at the end of the head, with a few information boards inside.

I even saw both a slow worm and what I think was a vole in the space of five minutes, on a quiet section of wooded trail. There had been plenty of interesting birds along the Coast Path, but other than an adder not a lot of other wildlife of note, so I was very happy to see them.

So where’s the bad bit, you may ask? Underfoot, is my answer. This was easily the rockiest section of the Coast Path that I’d walked since the long grind to Pendeen Watch five days ago, and my feet were far from thrilled about it.

The worst part saved itself until right near the end, a very steep and unpleasant descent down the cliffs near Chynhall’s Point outside Coverack. I didn’t enjoy it in good weather; it would have been downright nasty in the rain.

I guess what I’m saying is that even though it was quite a bit shorter than the days before and after, today’s section wasn’t much easier!

I really liked Coverack, a pretty fishing village with a great little harbour that, as I was to discover not long after, is the perfect place to eat your dinner. For now, though, I still had to get to my campsite, which of course was a 15 minute walk away up the hill.

Once I got there, though, I was glad I’d made the effort. After calling the number on the board and being told to find a spot in the hiker’s field, I did exactly that. It wasn’t hard to find one; there was literally nobody else there, and only a few other people in the entire site.

After meeting the manager to pay for my pitch and get the lowdown on where to eat, I followed her advice to the letter. “Grab takeaway fish and chips from The Lifeboat House back in the village” she said, “and be sure to eat it on the harbour wall”.

As it turned out, many other people had the same idea; luckily the shop also sold cider, so it was far from a hardship to drink it in the evening sun as I waited. Conversation buzzed around me, the pain in my feet receded, and any complaints about today’s walking disappeared in a haze of deep-fried deliciousness.

Even the walk back up to the campsite felt far less difficult afterwards, although maybe that was just the cider working its magic. I’ll take it either way.

Planning

Started at: Henry’s Campsite (0.5 miles/0.8km off-trail)

Finished at: Coverack Camping (0.6 miles/1km off-trail, mostly uphill)

I was on a good run with campsites at the moment, what with Henry’s the night before and now Coverack Camping tonight both being right up my alley. Sure, it’s a bit over half a mile from the trail and village, mostly up a steep hill, but at least it felt like it was worth the effort.

Run out of a section of Penmarth Farm, the place describes itself as a “basic no-frills eco campsite”, but I feel like it’s doing itself a bit of a disservice. Let’s just say I’ve stayed in places with fewer frills on this walk that don’t describe themselves that way!

It had everything I look for in a campsite: free hot showers, clean (composting) toilets, somewhere to charge my phone and power bank, and not many other people around so I got a good night’s sleep.

With nobody else in the walker’s field that night, let’s just say that finding a good spot wasn’t hard. In reality I could probably have chosen any spot in that field and been happy with it: being inland with plenty of hedges around, wind wasn’t anywhere near the issue as it had been elsewhere.

Throw in a personable and helpful campsite manager, a good price (£10), and a relaxed vibe from the few other people I did meet (mostly campervan owners), and I really liked this place.

Transport and Parking

The Lizard peninsula is pretty remote but there’s still some public transport available, even if it’s infrequent and takes a long, meandering route to get anywhere useful.

From Lizard Town, take the number 34 bus back in the direction of Helston, getting off at the RNAS base before you get into Helston itself. Cross to the stop on the other side of the road, then take either the 36 or 380 bus to Coverack: the stop is in the car park just north of the village.

The 34 operates morning to evening every day, once an hour Monday through Saturday. It runs every two hours on Sundays and bank holidays, and services also start later and finish earlier in the day.

Unfortunately the other routes you need don’t run anywhere near as often. The 380 runs once a day on weekday evenings, while the 36 goes to Coverack five times a day Monday through Saturday.

Getting the times to align with your walk won’t necessarily be easy, but it is at least possible. For a shorter walk, the number 34 also stops at Ruan Minor or Kuggar, both of which are less than ten minutes off the trail between Cadgwith and Kennack Sands.

If you’re leaving a car somewhere, you’ll have an easier time of it. Lizard Town has plenty of free on-street parking, and there’s also that National Trust carpark on the trail at Lizard Point if you don’t want to go in/out of the village.

Cadgwith has cheap all-day pay and display parking at the decent-sized lot just up the road from the harbour. There are two places in Kennack Sands, the expensive year-round parking area beside the beach cafes and a seasonal option just beforehand. The latter is a lot cheaper for all-day parking.

There are also a few free laybys on the lane leading into Kennack Sands, but you’ll need to get there very early in summer to use them! Finally, Coverack has a good-sized car park run by the local parish council; pay via the honesty box.

Waymarking and Navigation

I definitely needed to use my map on the public footpaths around Lizard Town as I left…and returned…and left again this morning, but navigation and waymarking on the trail itself was pretty good.

There aren’t too many places to really go wrong today, although be sure to keep an eye out when leaving Cadgwith: the path only follows the road out of town briefly before turning off back onto the coast.

I used AllTrails as my main navigation app for the entire South West Coast Path, and it worked well throughout. The section from Lizard Point to Coverack is here, and you should be able to navigate there from Lizard Town via any of the public footpaths shown on the map.

The app is free to use, although I pay a couple of pounds a month for a subscription so I can download maps to my phone in advance.

Phone Service

While I had service in Lizard Town (although not at the campsite), it disappeared pretty quickly when I got back to the coast and for most of the walk around the eastern side of the Lizard peninsula.

As usual on this walk, what signal I did have tended to be up on the cliffs; the combination of steep valleys and stone buildings meant there was little to nothing in the bays and villages along the way.

Things improved somewhat after Kennack Sands, although there were still large periods of minimal service until I got to Coverack. There, I had usable signal both in the village and at the campsite.

As a backup, I’d also paid a few pounds for a data eSIM from Instabridge that let me swap between all three UK networks, EE, O2, and Vodafone/Three. It worked really well as a fallback option all along the Coast Path: if I didn’t have service with my usual provider (O2), I’d just switch to another. As long as there were any mobile phone towers in range, I’d have service.

Facilities

As you can probably tell from my slightly ridiculous trip back into Lizard Town this morning, places don’t open particularly early for breakfast. Chances are you’ll be waiting around until 9:30 a.m., unless you also feel the need to do a loop around the bottom of the peninsula first! Once it does open, I can recommend the breakfast at Coast Coffee.

The cafes and ice-cream shop at Lizard Point will have opened if you get there after 10 a.m., so that’s an option for refreshments or a full meal. After that, you’ll need to wait until you get to Cadgwith, a bit over three miles away.

There, on the right you’ll find a shop selling (among other things) crab sandwiches which was very popular on the day I was there, plus both a cafe and a pub on the left slightly further up the road.

If you’re prepared to head slightly inland to the large Parkdean holiday park at Kuggar, you’ll find a Nisa Local convenience store; there’s also a pub and Thai takeaway slightly further up the road. Otherwise, continue on to either of the cafes on the beach at Kennack Sands; just don’t make the mistake of ordering a pasty from Mora Cafe like I did.

Finally, there’s the pub and the fish and chip shop opposite each other beside the harbour in Coverack (I greatly enjoyed my takeaways on the sea wall), as well as Cove Cafe if you get there before it closes in the afternoon.

Accommodation

There are a handful of campsites along this stretch, so it’s mostly just a matter of deciding how far you want to walk today.

After leaving Lizard, your first choice is Cadgwith Camping, a simple but lovely seasonal site in a farmer’s field. It’s close to the trail, about half a mile before you get to Cadgwith village.

Namparra Campsite is in Kuggar, about half a mile off the trail at Kennack Sands. It’s a simple farm site with toilets, showers, and most importantly, alpacas, right beside one pub and a short walk to another.

Finally, there’s Coverack Camping where I stayed, or Little Trevothan Caravan Park a little further down the road. Despite the name, the latter happily accepts tent-based campers as well, with dedicated spots for walkers.

Want to sleep in something that’s not a tent? Chances are it’ll be a room in a pub, at least if you want to stay near the trail.

As well as being a good place to eat and drink, Cadgwith Cove Inn is a good place to sleep: the rooms with shared bathrooms are quite a bit cheaper, but there are ensuite options as well. Other than that, you’re probably going to end up at the Paris Hotel, the pub beside the harbour in Coverack.

The room rates at both places include breakfast, making them even better value for money.