Cape Cornwall (, meaning "goose back") is a small headland in West

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England. It is north of

Land's End Land's End ( or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

near the town of St Just.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' Until the first

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

in the early 19th-century, Cape Cornwall was believed to be the most westerly point in Cornwall.Joseph, Peter. 2006. ''Cape Cornwall Mine. British Mining No. 79.'' Sheffield: Northern Mine Research Society; p. 111. . Most of the headland is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. National Coastwatch has a look-out on the seaward side. The only tourist infrastructure at present is a car park (owned by the National Trust), public toilets, and a refreshments counter during the summer. The Brisons, two offshore rocks, are located approximately southwest of Cape Cornwall. They mark the starting line of the annual swimming race ending at Priest Cove.

Etymology

The name Cape Cornwall appeared first on a maritime chart around the year 1600. The original Cornish name, ''Kilgoodh Ust,'' dates back to 1580. In English it translates to "goose-back at St Just", a reference to the shape of the cape. Later versions of the name dropped the 'Ust'. An alternative name, ''Pen Kernow,'' is a recent translation back to Cornish of the English. A cape is the point of land where two bodies of water meet. Cape Cornwall is one of only two capes in the United Kingdom, the other being

Cape Wrath Cape Wrath (, known as ' in Lewis) is a cape in the Durness parish of the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the most north-westerly point in Great Britain. The cape is separated from the rest of the mainland by the Ky ...

in North West Scotland.

Early history

Pottery found in cists on the Cape have been dated to the Late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. The presence of another cliff castle nearby (Kenidjack) may indicate that the area was important in the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. On the landward side of the Cape is the remains of the medieval St Helen's Oratory, which replaced a 6th-century church. A

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

now installed in the porch of St Just church may be from this building.

19th-century to present

Cape Cornwall Mine, a

tin mine Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

on the cape, was operated intermittently between 1838 and 1883. The mine's 1864 chimney near the peak of the cape was retained as an aid to navigation. In the early 20th-century, the former

ore dressing Mineral processing is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores in the field of extractive metallurgy. Depending on the processes used in each instance, it is often referred to as ore dressing or ore milling. ...

floors were for a time converted for use as greenhouses and wineries. In 1987, the mine site was purchased by the H. J. Heinz Company of the United States (and British plants) and donated to the nation. The remains of Cape Cornwall Mine are designated as part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Gallery

File:Cape Cornwall from air.jpg File:Cape Cornwall Golf Club.png, Cape Cornwall Golf Club File:Cape Cornwall 2.jpg

References

External links

Cape Cornwall at DMOZ
{{Headlands of Cornwall National Trust properties in Cornwall Headlands of Cornwall Penwith St Just in Penwith