Six Cornish Walks - 6. Zennor Head

Every now and again one feels the need for romance – and what could be more romantic than a mermaid?

There’s one at Zennor. In fact, there’s a huge amount about Zennor that is crazily romantic – so to that lonesome village I repaired one fine day last summer.

Did I see the mermaid of Pendour Cove? Of course not. But I did see much else that was lovely and sublime on the short one hour stroll I took around Zennor Head before embarking on the long, long drive back home to Exmoor. 

That, indeed, is the theme of this hike: if you are in distant West Penwith facing a long journey back up country – which for all but West Penwithians is sooner or later almost bound to be the case – you might like to try this short but extremely bracing and beautiful hour long walk around one of the region’s most divine headlands. It’s just the thing to give you the energy and vim to wend your way all those confounded miles…

Here’s what DH Lawrence wrote about the rocky and romantic parish in which he lived here for a time: “At Zennor one sees infinite Atlantic, all peacock-mingled colours, and the gorse is sunshine itself. Zennor is a most beautiful place: a tiny granite village nestling under high shaggy moor-hills and a big sweep of lovely sea beyond, such a lovely sea, lovelier even than the Mediterranean..... It is the best place I have been in, I think.”

More than once I’ve found myself agreeing with Lawrence in this matter, for I have often down the years walked the moors and cliff-tops out there on the edge of the world halfway betwixt St Ives and St Just. 

The area is rich in walks, but this is just a little taster designed for those who are in a hurry. Park in the village and try to ignore the excellent Tinner’s Arms pre-walk in the happy knowledge that you can call in upon your return. 

Between the pub and the church a small lane filters through to a farmyard where you have a choice of footpaths – don’t take the one marked “Field Path” unless you want to head a long way east inland from the coast. 

Far better to veer left, down the lane that leads towards the South West Coast Path. But, if you’ve time, take a quick turn around the old granite church. The name Zennor is Cornish and is thought to be a corruption of St. Senara. She was a princess called Azenor who – in her homeland of Brittany - was accused of something or other by her wicked husband and sealed in a barrel which was then thrown into the sea. They didn’t mess about with divorces in those days. 

Maybe she was the original mermaid – who knows? But Azenor is said to have bobbed her way north to Ireland, stopping off to found Zennor along the way. 

After you’ve left her church, the little lane winds its way down to the coast, passing just two houses along its scenic route. We meet the sea-cliffs high above the aforementioned Pendour Cove which is where the mermaid is meant to live. 

Hesp, looking worried about meeting the Mermaid of Zennor above Pendour Cove

Legend has it that a handsome young chap called Matthew Trewhella had such a good voice that he was asked to sing the last hymn during services up at the church. The resident mermaid used to hear this lovely sound and would slip-slide her way up the rocks to get closer. So in love with the singing was she that her visits out of water lasted longer and longer – which is not healthy for mermaids. 

Of course she eventually fell in love with young Matthew after one day actually setting eyes upon him. Needless to say, the feeling was mutual – because, as you know, mermaids are very lovely to behold. 

But she was beginning to fade away from being so long out of her native environment, so the lovelorn Cornish youth carried her down to the cove and dived beneath the waves with her. He was never seen again. 

Locals reckon if you sit above Pendour at sunset on a fine evening you might hear the poor (or lucky, depending on which way you look at it) blighter singing from the deep. 

I didn’t. But, my goodness, I enjoyed the views you get from the big granite rocks out at the end of Zennor Head.

You reach the headland by heading straight on where the lane meets the coast path. Turn left along instead and you could, if you wished, enjoy an entirely different circular walk back to the village via Carnelloe Cliff, turning inland up the valley called Poniou, and returning over the hill through the small fields.  

But that’s quite a bit longer and I look forward to doing it another day. This time I went out to the end of Zennor Head and followed the coast path round into Porthzennor Cove. Along this stretch you are treated to sublime views of the cliffs that lead all the way to Carn Naun Point halfway to St Ives. 

Hikers at Zennor

As the path ascends up to Tremedda Cliff above the fabulous but nigh on inaccessible beach, you will notice a footpath branching off through the bracken to the right. This simply takes you back across the base of the headland to a point you passed some 20 minutes before. 

Turn left and you can return to one of the last places in the world where people spoke Cornish - native speaker John Davey of nearby Boswednack hamlet died at Zennor in 1891.

Back in the Tinner’s Arms you can raise a pint in his honour and maybe even meet one of the present day speakers of Kernewek.

This butterfly followed me for a mile until I wondered if it was the Spirit of the Mermaid of Zennor

Fact File:

Basic Walk: short lasso shaped route from Zennor village north west to coast and Zennor Head which we round to come back via an inland path that takes us back to the coastal lane. 

Recommended map: Ordnance Survey Explorer 102.

Distance and going: two miles easy going.