Whitesand Bay (, meaning ''cove at Sennen'') is a wide sandy bay near

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 ...

in west Cornwall, England,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It stretches for one mile between the headlands of Pedn-mên-du and Aire Point. and contains the village of

Sennen Cove Sennen Cove () () is a small coastal village in the parish of Sennen in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. According to the Penwith District Council, the population of this settlement was estimated at 180 persons in 2000. The South West Coast ...

.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' It is also a landing point for the

Atlantic Crossing 1 Atlantic Crossing 1 (AC-1) is an optical submarine telecommunications cable system linking the United States and three European countries. It transports speech and data traffic between the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany. It is one ...

international telecommunications cable. Sennen Cove beach - geograph

Whitesand Bay beach is popular with

surfers Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

. At high tide, the beach is divided in two: Sennen Cove beach to the south (more popular for its size, facilities and surf schools), and Gwynver beach to the north (popular for its typically better surfing waves and walking distance of Trevedra Farm campsite). At the south end, at Sennen Cove, there are toilet facilities, a surf shop, a restaurant, and two car parks, one in a large field above the cliff, and another beside the beach. Dogs are banned on the beach from Easter Day to 1 October every year. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

runs along the dunes behind the beach.

History

Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, would ...

landed here at the start of the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497. The bay lends its name to the

Bay class frigate The Bay class was a class of 26 anti-aircraft (A/A) frigates built for the Royal Navy under the 1943 War Emergency Programme during World War II (one of which was cancelled and six completed as despatch vessels or survey ships). They were based ...

HMS ''Whitesand Bay''..

Natural history

The west facing bay is backed by a

dune system A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

which has developed from a limited supply of sand trapped within the shelter of the headlands, Pedn-mên-du (in the south) and Aire Point. The dunes contain the only British population of the

shield bug Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert ...

'' Geotomus punctulatus'' which was first recorded here in 1864. ''G. punctulatus'' is a southern European species and associated with sparsely vegetated areas of loose sand and feeds on lady's bedstraw ''(

Galium verum ''Galium verum'' (lady's bedstraw or yellow bedstraw) is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread across most of Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia from Palestine, Lebanon and Turkey to Japan and Kam ...

)''. Another rarity is ''Emblethis griseus'' a seed-eating bug associated with marram grass (''

Ammophila arenaria ''Ammophila arenaria'' is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is known by the common names marram grass and European beachgrass. It is one of two species of the genus '' Ammophila''. It is native to the coastlines of Europe and North Afr ...

''), common stork’s-bill (''

Erodium cicutarium ''Erodium cicutarium'', also known as common stork's-bill, redstem filaree, redstem stork's bill or pinweed, is a herbaceous annual plant, annual – or in warm climates, biennial plant, biennial – member of the family Geraniaceae of flowering ...

''), spurges (''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

'' species) and sparse grassland. Never numerous here, it is also recorded in the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

and

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

References

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Bays of Cornwall Beaches of Cornwall Dunes of England Penwith