Wednesday 20 May 2026

Rest day number four Lizard

This was a restful day. A slow, late breakfast where we had a long talk with a lady from Switzerland who is touring around Cornwall/Devon in her car with her wee dog. She is doing day walks on the coast and next goes to St Ives then Padstow. She came over from Europe on the “chunnel”, the channel Tunnel. It takes 35 minutes from Coquelles in France to Folkstone in England and a train runs every 15 minutes, 365 days a year. You do not directly drive your car through the tunnel you drive onto a specialised train and sit in your car for the length of the crossing. We told her we were in Switzerland in 1978, before she was born, and we went on the train from Jungfrau  through the Eiger Mountain to Europe’s highest railway station. She said she lives very close to the Jungfraubahn (the railway).

After doing our “rest day laundry” we retraced our steps from yesterday afternoon to the Coast Path and walked the last little section to Lizard Point, the southern most point in mainland Britain. This is very low key compared to Land’s End. Some information boards, UK’s most southern cafe, a couple of small souvenir shops, the old lifeguard station and a slipway down to the sea, and that’s about it. Some distance away the Lizard Lighthouse, a car park and toilets. The Lizard Village is about a 15 minute walk inland from the point.

We had lunch in the very nice Coast Coffee Bar and Bistro in the heart of Lizard. CFC (Coast fried Chicken) crumbed chicken, salad and fries. Cod burger with fries. It was hard to find anywhere that did not just do seafood dishes which seems to be the thing in Lizard.

There is no grocery store in Lizard, you have to go to Helston 18 kilometres away, for us a day’s walk each way. By chance we went into a hidden away Farm Kitchen and Cafe and they stocked enough food for us to get fruit, yoghurt, baguette , biscuits etc for tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon I went out to find the St Wynwallow’s Church, another one of those wonderful old village parish churches I love to poke my nose into. This one had a few interesting things to offer. As is usual it is surrounded by a cemetery of ancient gravestones. Like a growing number of places the grass is just left to grow. The church has the grass mown three times a year and at present is supporting “no Mow in May”. This is a conservation campaign to encourage gardeners to put away their mowers and let the grass grow wild, allowing early spring flowers like daisies, dandelions and clover to bloom creating a vital nectar and pollen source and shelter for early season pollinators like bees and butterflies. Next month the campaign is “Let it bloom in June”.

St Wynwallows had a nice warm inviting feeling to it helped by the light coloured stone, dark timber, bright red carpet and two very fine stained glass windows. Capping it all off were brightly coloured tapestry kneelers on the pews for all the congregation. Each one was an individual design, some simple designs, others more complex, some commemorating events or loved ones. No apparent overall theme to it, a lot of dedicated people just doing their own creative thing.

On the floor in the church is a large bell, among the oldest pre-reformation bells in Cornwall and over 600 years old. It formed part of a chime of three bells used up until 1937. The two others are still in use as part of a peel of six bells that have been used since 1938. One of the original bells still in use is stamped with the Royal Arms as used from 1189 to 1340. The bells still ring out at least three times a month and they are looking for new bell ringers –  not campanologists, they study the art and science of bell ringing.

So we are rested up and ready to hit the path again. Seven days walking until our next rest day in Looe.