Penzance, Cornwall to Porthleven, Cornwall

miles 138 - 140

The first mile is along the footpath on the A30, but opposite the helicopter baseyou can cross a footbridge over the railway, and walk along the beach. St Michaels Mount is in front of you

	St Michael's Mount, a dot on the skyline

miles 140 - 142

Another mile along the beach gets you to the causeway approach to St Michaels Mount. The Mount has had a long history as abbey, castle, and family home, before being given to the National Trust in 1954. It is one of the most interesting places to visit in the whole of the Uk, and you should make the pilgrimage to the Mount. Normally the causeway is under water for over half the day, but there are regular and cheap ferrys running. You should be able to walk one way and take the ferry the other

	St Michael's Mount

The road winds out of Marazion, for almost a mile, straggling past a ribbon development of houses

miles 142 - 144

The path drops down to the rocky beach and the up some steps and along fields to Maen-Du Point. With Perran sands in front of you now, you can detour 400 yards into Perranuthnoe village with its 15th century church (there is also a pub, the Victoria Inn).

At the end of the sands the path climbs up to the cliff tops again. There are good views down over Stackhouse Cove and Cudden Point half a mile beyond, and which you soon reach

miles 144 - 146

From Cudden Point, it is another descent to Prussia Cove. This is (was!) serious smuggling country. The cove is named after a pub called the King of Prussia (Fredrick the Great, an allay of Britain in the Seven Years War). The pub was run by the Carters, notorious 18th century smugglers, who are believed to even have mounted a battery of guns to keep the Customs men away.

And as well as smugglers the has to be a wreck too. Here it was Cornwall's largest wreck, the battleship Warspite. In 1947, it was being towed to the breakers yard, and was blown onto the rocks at Prussia Cove. There is a concrete pillar on the west point of the Cove, that was part of the attempts to salvage the wreck

Leaving Prussia Cove, the path climbs upp he cliffs again, to pass high above Kenneggy Sands, and on to Hoe Point

part of an interesting old manor house		cottages above the cove

miles 146 - 148

It is now along Praa Sands beach for a mile. There is a small resort town here as well on the beach. At the end of the beach, the path climbs through National Trust land at Lesceave Cliff, past Rinsey Head, and on to a very dramatic section of cliff walk. The gaunt remains of the engine house of Wheal Prosper mine are still there, altough it ceased production by 1860. The mines are here because there is a geological change from the slates of Penzance to a granite base here. This is always a good clue to where to find mineral ore, and hence old mines.

Praa Sands - avoid the town		From Rinsey Head

	East from Rinsey

There is a detour path down to the cove from the mine. The main path continues half way up the cliff to Trewavas Head and to another spectacular old mine, the ruins of Wheal Trewavas. This mine stopped production in 1851 when the sea broke in to the mine shaft

miles 148 - 151

On along the cliffs, with some diversions where the edges have crumbled, to Tregar Point. On the remaining mile into Porthleven, there is a memorial cross, put up in the last century by the local vicar as a memorial to shipwreck victims. He was one of the first clergymen who would bury such shipwrecked bodies in consecrated ground - before that they were treated as unclean, and buried outside the churchyard. And just beyond the cross are Great Trigg Rocks, a geologically odd collection of boulders though to have been a relic of the last Ice Age.

Porthleven started life as a fishing port, but is another holiday resort today

Across the entrance to the harbour		The harbour mouth
	Harbour Porthlevan
Along the beach at Porthlevan		And on to the Lizard

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