Land's End

You have come to the end of the land. This is the most westerly point of mainland England, a great mass of granite facing the open Atlantic, and beyond the cliffs the sea runs unbroken to America. Just offshore, on its own reef, stands the Longships Lighthouse, and on a clear day, far out on the horizon, you can make out the low shapes of the Isles of Scilly. The wind comes straight off the ocean here. There is nowhere left to walk but back.

For centuries Land's End has drawn travellers as the symbolic end of England, the place where the country runs out, and pilgrims, poets and record-breakers have all made their way here to stand at the finish of the land. It marks one terminus of that famous journey the length of Britain, from here to John o' Groats in the far north of Scotland, some 870 miles away by the usual roads, a route walked, cycled and run by thousands every year. The headland became a tourist attraction in the nineteenth century, and today a visitor complex occupies the point itself, with its signpost and its shops. But do not let that fool you. Walk a few minutes along the coast path in either direction and the crowds fall away, and you are left with genuinely spectacular cliff scenery, wild and empty, exactly as it has always been. The Longships Lighthouse offshore was first built in 1795 and rebuilt in 1873, set there on its low reef to warn ships off this dangerous granite coast, where the currents run hard and the swell rarely rests.

There is much to look for here, so take your time. First, the great granite cliffs themselves, sculpted by the Atlantic into stacks and arches. Look for the Armed Knight, a dramatic pointed stack just off the point, and the natural arch of Enys Dodnan beside it; in the right light they are unforgettable. Second, the Longships Lighthouse on its reef, small and white against the moving sea, a mile or so out. Third, look to the horizon on a clear day for the Isles of Scilly, faint and blue, twenty-eight miles out in the ocean. Fourth, watch the cliffs and the air for seabirds: fulmars stiff-winged on the updraughts, kittiwakes and guillemots on the ledges, and the red-billed chough, which has returned to breed on this coast. And fifth, scan the water below, where seals and dolphins are seen offshore, and in summer even basking sharks pass slowly by. Keep well back from the edges as you look; the drops are big and the seas powerful.

For a legend to carry with you, look out to the west, past the Longships, to where the sea lies empty between here and Scilly. Old tradition says that a land once stood there, the drowned kingdom of Lyonesse, a country of fair towns and a hundred and forty churches, swallowed by the sea in a single night long ago. The Isles of Scilly, in this telling, are the last hilltops of that lost land, still standing above the waves. It is a story with no proof and every kind of power, and standing here at the edge of the map, watching the light on that wide empty sea, it is not hard to believe.

From this point the South West Coast Path turns and runs south and east, past the wild coves towards the Minack and Porthcurno, and on eventually to Lamorna. As you leave, walk a little way along the cliff and turn for one last look at the Armed Knight and the Longships beyond, with the whole Atlantic pouring past the last rocks of England. It is the end of the land, and the beginning of the sea. Walk safe.