Land’s End, Cornwall

It’s the End of The World as we know it. Well the end of England anyway. The land part. Ok, I’ll stop, this is getting a bit tortured.

In case you didn’t know, Land’s End is at Britain’s most south westerly point. Not including islands we have in the Atlantic, obviously. If you are visiting Cornwall then Land’s End is probably on your itinerary already. So what is actually there? How should you get there?

I’ll answer the second question first. We got a bus from St Ives to Penzance and then another bus. Penzance is nothing spectacular really. It just has a name made romantic by its association with pirates. We missed all the pirates but did manage to see a Greggs bakers, a McDonalds, and a Weatherspoon pub, so if you like them you should check it out. For some reason it reminded me of Colchester except Penzance has the sea whereas Colchester has a castle. Otherwise they are the same. I apologise to both Penzance and Colchester for this comparison.

If you take the bus you can take in some lovely scenery and who doesn’t love lovely scenery? Also it was the only way to do it without a car. Fortunately this worked in our favour as we would otherwise have missed the best bit.

After about 40 minutes, our bus drove down a steep road and lo! a huge beach, cliffs, the ocean. It was truly breathtaking. Assuming we had arrived, we started to disembark when the very friendly driver stopped us. Somehow he twigged we weren’t locals and informed us that we had arrived at a place called Sennen Bay. He then informed us that we could walk from the bay to Land’s End. The beach was stunning so we got off. Photos can’t really to credit to the place but here goes. The tiny dot is a person – the beach was huge.

From Sennen Bay to Land’s End is about a mile. Or 30 minutes or so given that you are walking beside cliffs and it can be unbelievably windy. I was getting the impression that Cornwall was permanently the brunt of Atlantic winds and walking along the cliffs toward Land’s End certainly bore this theory out. I had experienced wind like this before but it had been in Hong Kong as a typhoon hit, not in England on the edge of a cliff.  My wife, who weighs almost half what I do, clung to me almost the entire way in case she was blown off.

I would highly, highly recommend getting to Land’s End by this method. Partly because once you get there you feel as if you have achieved something and seen some stunning coastline, but mostly because you will feel a bit let down otherwise – there’s not really a lot there when you arrive. There’s the usual sign you get in places like this that marks your destination, points to other places, and provides a place to have your photo taken.

Apart from this sign there is a pub/coffee shop sort of place where you can have cheesy chip and a pint. It’s nice enough but could have been a lot better. But why should it try really? It’s not going to have regulars, it’s just going to be full of wind-swept tourists who want a coffee after having had their photo taken. So it is pleasant enough.

Behind this, is a small but slightly complex. There is a shopping mall, and a couple of bizarre entertainment ‘rides’? ‘Experiences’? Whatever they are they were weird and felt out of place.

For example:

Ok, pirates. The sea. But Doctor Who? This complex was small so I assume these ‘whatever-they-are’ thingies are going to be pretty crap. It all just seemed a bit weird and a cheap way to cash in on tourists. ‘Ahhh,’ you might be thinking, ‘the place is probably heaving with tourists in August.’ Smug bastard that you are. If that is the case then why is the complex so small?

Also, for a tourist heavy location, there is the whole issue of the bus stop…

Assuming that there must be lots of transport to and from one of Britain’s more famous locations we were rather surprised that we couldn’t see any. We asked in the tourist office but the dumpy sack of a lady who worked there was really unhelpful and seemed to hate us. ‘There’s a bus over there,’ she waved vaguely with her pie-like hands. If you loathe outsiders, why work in a tourist office? You can probably guess I didn’t like her much. Maybe her dog had just died or something.

Eventually we found the bus stop after a bit of a walk. Like a lot of places we visited in Cornwall, it was hard to find and we had to wait ages for a bus. As a city person, I found this frustrating and annoying. Land’s End is a popular place but I guess you are supposed to drive.  There was one bus an hour. Here is a picture of it:

The bus stop is near the white house. It took five minutes to get to this point.

I’ll stop bitching. It just annoys me when lots of things are set up to get money from tourists but there’s no public transport. It was a superb day and I just thought it was a shame. Once on the bus, the journey back was a breeze.

So… to conclude.

Go to Sennen Bay and walk to Land’s End. You’ll see some gorgeous Cornish coastline, which is what you’re there for after all. It is truly a beautiful spot and the walk is a spectacular and rewarding one. You’ll get a year’s worth of healthy fresh air in a wonderful half hour. Then have a coffee. Then drive home. Enjoy.