Walk - Godrevy Head

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Godrevy Head Car Park - TR27 5ED Godrevy Head Car Park

Easy - A short walk, with one stile and one gentle climb. Due to the stile, only part of this walk is likely to be suitable for people with impaired mobility or with a pushchair.

This short walk has great views across St Ives Bay, and out to the lighthouse on Godrevy Island just off shore. Children will love the long beach, as well as the island and the lighthouse and the tales of shipwrecks. A good walk in spring, when the coastal grasslands are full of wildflowers and fulmars nest noisily in the cliffs, and in autumn, especially during strong winds, when huge flocks of migrating seabirds pass through, including kittiwakes and sometimes storm petrels.

There are a range of wonderful places to lay your head near the Coast Path for a well-earned sleep. From large and luxurious hotels, to small and personable B&B's, as well as self-catering options and campsites. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

Loggans Lodge

Loggans Lodge has 3 en-suite bedrooms equipped with Tea/Coffee facilities, fridge, TV, safe, hairdryer. Close to bars, restaurants, take-aways and a supermarket

3 Rew An Borthva

Whole luxury townhouse appartment, sea views. Discount available to Coast Path Members

Beachpads

Three Individual Properties directly on the SW Coastal Route. Sleeps 1 -22. Out of school holiday and summer season single night single bedroom stays available.

Polmanter Touring Park

We offer the perfect base to explore West Cornwall offering award-winning camping facilities and 4 luxury holiday properties

Boskerris Hotel

Located in Carbis Bay, Boskerris hotel is a family run oasis. We have 15 individually decorated bedrooms, most of which with an outstanding panoramic ocean views.

Cohort St Ives

Educational Residential Trip Centre. Open to the public over Easter School Holidays and Summer School Holidays. Family rooms. Dorm rooms. Private rooms. Great facilities.

Portreath Arms

Family owned and run Bar, Restaurant and Hotel located in the centre of the village. The menu features good home cooked food with ever changing specials and daily locally caught fish dishes
You'll be spoilt for choice for where to eat and drink along the Path. With lots of local seasonal food on offer, fresh from the farm, field and waters. Try our local ales, ciders, wines and spirits, increasing in variety by the year, as you sit in a cosy pub, fine dining restaurant or chilled café on the beach. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

The Cove Café

Tranquil spot to enjoy fresh food from Cornish producers with iconic view, prepared by award winning cookery school owner, Rupert Cooper. Breakfast & lunches - check website/socials for evening openings/events

Flapjackery St Ives

Stop off and treat yourself or stock up for your trip along the Path with these delicious, award winning, gluten free flapjacks in a variety of flavours. 10% off when you show your SWCP Passport.

Lifeboat Inn

Warm rooms & apartments with free Wi-Fi in a down-to-earth pub featuring harbour views.

Portreath Arms Hotel

The Portreath Arms is a family owned and run Bar, Restaurant and Hotel located in the centre of the village. The menu features good home cooked food with ever changing specials and daily locally caught fish dishes

What is on your list of things to do when you visit the Path? From walking companies, to help you tailor your visit, with itineraries and experts to enhance your visit, to baggage transfer companies and visitor attractions there are lots to people and places to help you decide what you'd like to do. The businesses that support the Path, where you've chosen to visit, are listed here.

Escape to the Sauna

Escape to the Sauna in Hayle offers a wood-fired beachside sauna with estuary views, blending nature and relaxation for a rejuvenating, unique escape by the sea.

St Ives Information Centre

Find places to stay, eat and visit on your trip to the St Ives area

Bys Vyken Events

Bys Vyken Events are a Cornish trail race company that bring Cornwall to life through their races

Royal Buses

Local Bus Operator offering Day Trips throughout Cornwall including from 29th October 2024 a South West Coast Path walk every Sunday.

Interactive Elevation

Route Description

  1. From the car park follow the Coast Path out towards the headland keeping the sea on your left.

    A little way offshore is Godrevy Island with its lighthouse – thought to be the inspiration for 'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf who spent many summer holidays in St Ives.

    As you walk along, keep an eye out in the water for grey seals playing and hunting for fish in the surf, and for the pod of bottlenose dolphins that are often seen further off-shore in St Ives Bay. Guillemots, razorbills, fulmar and cormorant are among the many seabirds that nest on the cliffs around the headland.

    Beyond Godrevy Island a dangerous reef known as the Stones extends out into St Ives Bay, and many vessels have been wrecked here over the years. It was the scene of a famous shipwreck in 1649. In the aftermath of the execution of King Charles I, followers attempted to send his lace trimmed garments and other possessions abroad for safe keeping as relics of the 'Martyr King'. The ship was wrecked and only a few of the clothes were washed ashore.

    Following the loss of the screw steamer ‘Nile’ with all hands in 1859, public pressure led to Trinity House constructing the lighthouse designed by James Walker. It was maintained by a two-man crew. The 26 metre high white octagonal tower is made from rubble stone bedded in mortar. The tower is  28 metres above the sea at high water. 1 white and 1 red light flashes  every 10 seconds and can be seen for 8 nautical miles. The cost of the station,  with its adjoining keepers' cottages, was £7,082 15s 7d.

    The original optic revolved on rollers, driven by a clockwork motor, which was in turn driven by a large weight running down a cavity in the wall of the tower.  Until it was automated in 1939, there was a 3cwt bell used as a Fog signal. This was struck once every 5 seconds. 

    Further modernisation was undertaken in 1995, when it was converted to operate with solar power. It is now monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich in Essex. In 2005 a review proposed closure, but following campaigning, this decision was overturned, and the light continues to provide a warning to mariners. In 2012 the light was moved from the lighthouse tower to a new steel structure on the adjacent rock. 

    1. As you come around to the north side of the headland, the path starts to descend slightly and as you pass Mutton Cove (there is no access down the cliff to the cove), a path leads off on the right, returning you to the car park. Alternatively the walk can be easily extended with a gentle stroll onwards along the Coast Path to the next headland, Navax Point and the Knavocks.

    Here a small herd of Shetland ponies help maintain the mix of grassland merging into heathland and gorse scrub which provide an ideal habitat for nesting birds such as stonechats, and butterflies such as the grayling.

    Public transport

    Buses run between Godrevy, Hayle & Penzance several times a day. For timetable information, zoom in on the interactive map and click on the bus stops, visit Traveline or phone 0871 200 22 33.

    Parking

    Godrevy Head Car Park (Postcode for Sat Navs: TR27 5ED) open from Easter to the end of October. The car park at Gwithian Towans is open all year round.

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