Sennen

Sennen is the last village in Cornwall before Land’s End, sitting just 1 mile from the most westerly point of mainland England. The parish takes its name from Senana, the Celtic patron saint of the 13th-century church in the village centre. A short walk north of the churchtown, a granite slab known as the Table Maen sits in a private garden - according to Arthurian legend, this is the stone where King Arthur feasted after defeating raiders at nearby Gwenver.

Sennen Cove has one of Cornwall’s best surf beaches - a mile of white sand at Whitesand Bay that catches the full force of the Atlantic. The cove has a small working harbour with local fishing boats and an active RNLI lifeboat station. Above the harbour, the Old Success Inn has served visitors and fishermen for over 300 years. Gwenver Beach, reached by steps from the coast path at the northern end of the bay, is a quieter alternative that works well at low tide. Above the cliffs at Tregiffian, a small cluster of self-catering cottages sits within walking distance of Gwenver - among them The Coach House, a three-bedroom property 300m from the beach via the coast path.

West of the cove on Mayon Cliff, Maen Castle is the most westerly cliff fort on mainland Britain. Excavations in 1939 and 1948-9 uncovered about 300 fragments of early Iron Age pottery, making it one of only two fortified sites in Cornwall to yield pottery of that period. The fort uses the sheer Atlantic cliffs as natural defences on three sides.

The South West Coast Path runs through the parish, with the walk from Sennen Cove to Land’s End taking around 30 minutes along the cliff tops. In the other direction, the path heads north past Gwenver toward Cape Cornwall. During the Second World War, RAF Sennen operated from the parish - the base was established in 1942 and remained active until the 1970s. More dramatically, in 1497, Perkin Warbeck landed at Sennen Cove with a small army, claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the lost Princes in the Tower.