Lamorna Cove to Penzance

Aug 25
4 min read

August 24, 2025 from the Itinerary: difficulty rating - challenging strenuous to easy (I can't take another difficult day). Beginning in the sub-tropical cove of Lamorna and passing through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Path changes quite dramatically as it crosses rugged cliffs, with some difficult ascents and descents, and then turns to easy walking on tarmac through Newlyn to Penzance. Mousehole, known for its tiny harbour and narrow streets of granite cottages, is a good place for a relatively quiet refreshment stop before you begin the more bustling stretch around Mount’s Bay.

Newlyn is not just the third largest fishing harbour in Britain - here you may even find the house with the smallest window in the UK! Following part of the National Cycle Network route round the edge of Mount’s Bay allows you to concentrate more on the facilities and sights of Penzance, rather than watching for uneven ground as you may well have been doing earlier on in the day.

Distance: 7.4 miles Weather: sunny and in the 70s

Highlights

Kemyel Crease Nature Reserve: Monterey pines grow here as well as Monterey cypress trees which have a beautiful lemon scent. The Reserve is rich in fungi and if you are walking in the summer or autumn months, you may see the unusual earth star fungus.

Not sure I saw the star fungus, but did see some of the cypress and it scent was lovely.

Point Spaniard: said to be where the Spaniards landed before ransacking Mousehole, Newlyn and Paul in 1595.

I think this must be going up to Point Spaniard. There was no sign, as such. This photo shows the last uphill of the 150 mile trek with St. Michael's Mount in the background.

Mousehole: a traditional fishing village described by Dylan Thomas as the prettiest village in England. Mousehole is actually thought to be Llareggub in his play Under Milk Wood. Many artists come here striving to capture the natural beauty of the area in their work and there are some galleries worth exploring. Often battered by winter storms, the villagers of Mousehole were once unable to put out their fishing boats due to the terrific gales. The villagers were close to starving when one man called Tom Bawcock braved the storm and brought back a massive haul of seven different types of fish. His heroic acts are celebrated every 23rd December when all of Mousehole gather to eat ‘Starry Gazy Pie’ (a fish pie with assorted fish heads poking out through the crust).

Mousehole (pronounced mouzal by the locals) was the first village of the urban sprawl into Penzance. It was a quaint, expensive little place, and, most importantly, flat.... I stopped for my break at an oceanside cafe.

Art and fishing in Newlyn: home to one of the largest fishing fleets in the UK, Newlyn is also remembered for its cultural history due to the group of post-impressionist painters who set up in Newlyn and later established a school of painting.

The sprawl continued into Newlyn where I stopped for a real Cornish pasty from one of the oldest pasty makers around. It was very tasty and filling and I had to fight off the seagull who appeared moments after I started eating. I was curious about the red sailed boats as I saw many of them along my journey. It seems they are typically Cornish luggers and or Cornish crabbers. Their sales are treated with ochre for protection and preservation. These boats, like the historic lugger Barnabas, were once the mainstay of the Cornish fishing fleet.

This is also where I changed out of my boots and into my sandals. My feet were very happy.

Penzance: there is much to see here, but if you prefer to stay on the Path and pass straight through you will still be able to get a feel for what Penzance has to offer, especially along the promenade where you will see the Jubilee Pool and Trinity House National Lighthouse Centre. The open-air Art Deco grade II listed Jubilee swimming pool is one of the oldest remaining Art Deco pools in the country.

The entry to Penzance was via an esplanade with views to the Atlantic

Stunning views of the majestic St Michael’s Mount. Once a Benedictine Priory, a fortress and tin mining port, it can be accessed by a causeway at low tide or by ferry.

Breakfast was rather uninspiring scrambled eggs. I only realized on the next day that there was another side of the menu...

I had two options for today's walk since it was ending in Penzance - I could start from here and take the bus back, or take the bus to where I ended yesterday and walk back. Since it is Sunday and the bus schedule is unreliable, I decided to take the bus to the Lamorna turn and walk back. Not inconsequential to the decision was that I would start downhill on that awful road from yesterday and also I'd have all the difficult "rolling countryside" first and on fresher legs.

Not unsurprisingly, the bus was already 10 minutes late. In addition, it was a new driver who didn't exactly know where the Larmorna turn was, so I had to keep an eagle eye out to press the stop button on time.

I was pushed for time yesterday, but today I had some time to take some shots of the walk back to Lamorna Cove. That was a plate size fungus - I should have put my hand to give a context as to size.

and here is more of a shot of the last rock scrambling from yesterday - looks easier than it was

Some pretty views as I left the Cove area and went up the first undulation and a look back to the Tater-du lighthouse

At the end of the first rise, I can already see Penzance. I;m still not sure if it's a good thing to be able to see the end of the walk from its beginning, or just to be surprised when I arrive.