Kynance Cove

Kynance is a cove of white sand between islands and stacks of serpentine, the green, red and purple mantle rock of the Lizard peninsula, which polishes to a shine when wet and which Victorian visitors came specifically to see; Tennyson visited in 1848 and Victoria and Albert in 1846, and the cove was a fixture of nineteenth-century Cornish tourism before most of the coast had any. The sand is largely crushed shell, which gives it the pale colour that makes the water look tropical in sunshine. At low tide the stacks can be walked to and caves entered, including one called the Devil's Bellows that blows spray through a blowhole on a rising tide; at high water most of the beach disappears. Cornish heath grows on the cliffs above.

What you actually see

• The serpentine stacks - green and red mantle rock islands in the cove.
• The shell sand - pale beach that turns the shallows turquoise in sun.
• The tidal caves - passages and a blowhole accessible only at low water.
• The Victorian association - a cove visited by Tennyson and Queen Victoria.

When to go

May to September, and specifically at low tide, since most of the beach and all the caves are underwater at high water; tide tables matter more than the season. Summer weekends fill the car park by mid-morning.

Honest expectations

The path down is steep and about ten minutes each way, with a harder climb back. The tide comes in fast and cuts off the stacks and caves; people are rescued from them regularly. There is one seasonal cafe and nothing else.

Nearby

Lizard Point is a walk south along the coast; Helston and the Helford lie north.