The footpath at St Agnes Head — St Agnes Head | © George Taylor

Cornwall

St Agnes Head Lookout Loop

Enjoy a short stretch of the South West Coast Path around St Agnes Head. Here you can wander across one of the largest heaths in Cornwall, hunt for signs of a Second World War army camp, and gaze out to sea to try and spot diving gannets and dolphins. This trail also passes by a National Coastwatch lookout station, where volunteers monitor sea conditions and keep an eye out for ships in distress. It is open year round, and visitors are welcome to pop in for a chat.

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Total steps: 5

Start point

St Agnes Head main car park, grid ref: SW699513

Step 1

Starting with the information sign on your left, head straight toward the sea. You will soon see the first waymarker. Follow the pink arrow and turn right on to the coast path.

Step 2

Follow the path, keep the sea on your left, and head toward the white Coastwatch lookout hut. You will see the Bawden Rocks out to sea, also known as Man and his Man, and Cow and Calf.

Heathland

The cliffs stretching from St Agnes Head to Porthtowan form one of the largest remaining tracts of heathland in Cornwall; most of the rest having been lost to agricultural use. The heath survives because the soils have been contaminated by the mining that previously took place here. The combination of soil conditions and salty winds blowing off the Atlantic means few plants other than heather can survive. Even this grows very slowly in the most exposed areas, where it develops a distinctive wave-like form. A suite of specially adapted invertebrates live within this patchy heath, including a remarkable diversity of spiders.

Step 3

You will reach a point where another path curves steeply up to the right, but stay on the path you are on.

Step 4

You walk past another right-hand fork in the path that leads up to the Coastwatch hut. They welcome visitors here when it is open, so pop in for a chat, ask them what they have seen, and take a look inside. If you don't want to detour, you will walk back past the Coastwatch hut later via the road.

National Coastwatch Institution lookout

The first lookout here was probably established at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The present building, rebuilt by the National Trust, opened in 2009 and is leased to the National Coastwatch Institution. The NCI, which is a registered charity founded in Cornwall in 1994, now maintains over 40 stations and has more than 1,700 volunteer watchkeepers. They keep a visual watch, monitor maritime radio and radar signals, and record sea and weather conditions. The watch here is kept from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week throughout the year.

Step 5

Stay on the coast path. You will reach a waymarker with a pink arrow indicating right. This path leads back up to the road that you drove in on. So either loop up or back to follow the road, or turn around and retrace your steps along the coast path.

Camp remains

During the Second World War, a light anti-aircraft training camp was built here and named Cameron Camp after a local landowner. It contained a number of buildings, and the partial remains of a few can still be seen today. The area is also covered by slit trenches, which are likely to have been made by infantry men during field exercises as they prepared for the D-Day landings. After the war, the camp was used as a housing estate. This was bulldozed in the early 1970s and the rubble was used to backfill several old mine shafts.

End point

St Agnes Head main car park, grid ref: SW699513

Trail map

Map of St Agnes Head Lookout Loop, Cornwall — St Agnes Head Lookout Loop, Cornwall | © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 Ordnance Survey

Visitors walking a dog along the South West Coast Path at St Agnes Head, Cornwall

Trail

White Rocks to St Agnes Beacon loop

Follow this gentle stretch of South West Coast Path from St Agnes Head to the disused mine at Wheal Coates. Loop back inland and climb to the summit of St Agnes Beacon for far-reaching views over the North Cornwall coast before heading back to the starting point.

St Agnes Head, Off Beacon Drive, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0NU

01872552412

stagneshead@nationaltrust.org.uk

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St Agnes Head Lookout Loop

Total steps: 5