Gwennap Head

Gwennap Head
Granite cliffs at Gwennap Head (Tol-Pedn-Penwith) near Porthgwarra
Gwennap Head is located in Cornwall
Gwennap Head
Gwennap Head
Location within Cornwall
OS grid referenceSW365217
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Postcode districtTR19
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°02′11″N 5°40′49″W / 50.0365°N 5.6804°W / 50.0365; -5.6804

Gwennap Head (Cornish: Toll Pedn Pennwydh, meaning holed head of Penwith;[1] grid reference SW3621) is a headland on the south coast of the Penwith peninsula, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is within the parish of St Levan and approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Land's End, and less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of Porthgwarra, the nearest village.[2] The area of Gwennap Head is designated as part of the Penwith Heritage Coast and also designated as part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The South West Coast Path closely follows the coastline around the headland.

Its intricate and varied granite cliffs include the famous Chair Ladder crag, making it a popular destination for recreational climbers of all abilities. The older and more correct name for the headland is Tol-Pedn-Penwith (locally "Tol-Pedn" for short) which comes from the Cornish for 'the holed headland of Penwith',[1] referring to the awesome vertical blowhole from the clifftop to a sea cave. From 1888 the name was changed to Gwennap Head, perhaps named after a local family,[3] but the new name did not enter local usage until the 1970s.[1]

The inshore waters around the headland are busy with shipping of all sizes. There is a Coastwatch station on the headland in the former coastguard building. The area is also popular with naturalists who, at the appropriate time of the year, can see rare animals such as chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), great shearwater (Puffinus gravis), basking shark and ocean sunfish (Mola mola).

  1. ^ a b c Craig Weatherhill (2017). The Place-Names of the Land's End Peninsula. Penwith Press. pp. 142–148. ISBN 9781999777500.
  2. ^ OS Explorer Map 102 - Land's End (B2 ed.). Southampton: Ordnance Survey. 2010. ISBN 978-0-319-24116-5.
  3. ^ Weatherhill C. (2007) Cornish Place Names and Language. Ammanford: Sigma Press.