Zennor Head is a 750-metre (2,460 ft) long promontory on the Cornish coast of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, between Pendour Cove and Porthzennor Cove. Facing the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, it lies 1 kilometre north-west of the village of Zennor and 1.6 kilometres east of the next promontory, Gurnard's Head. The

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

( Killas) cliffs rise over from the sea and the highest point of the headland is above sea level, with an

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 ...

triangulation station. Zennor Head is on 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 ...

, which follows the cliff edge closely, skirting the entire perimeter of the headland. The promontory is part of the

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

Heritage Coast, and is the largest coastal feature in the

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 ...

that begins with the letter "Z". It gets its name from a local saint, Senara. Zennor Head was mined for copper and tin in the

Victorian Era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

. There is no longer any residential or commercial occupancy on the headland, but it is occupied by a variety of coastal animals and plants, such as

kestrels The term kestrel (from , derivative from , i.e. Ratchet (instrument), ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behavio ...

and gorse.

Etymology

The name "Zennor Head" originates from the name of a local saint, Senara. According to local legend, Senara was thrown off a headland in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

in a barrel after being falsely accused of adultery by her husband and washed up on the Cornish coast, founding Zennor and giving her name to the eponymous village (and subsequently Zennor Head, Zennor Quoit and Porthzennor Cove), before continuing to Ireland. The "s" changed to a "z", an occurrence common in the West Country but rare elsewhere, and as such is the largest coastal feature in the United Kingdom to begin with the letter "Z".

History

The headland is bordered by Cornish granite hedges, and the farming system dates from about 4000 BC, the time of the

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 ...

in Cornwall. The surrounding area and village of Zennor has been continually occupied for over 4,000 years. Zennor Head was mined extensively for

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and tin in the 19th century, and drainage

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...

s remain visible on the eastern side. The promontory was donated to 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 ...

in December 1953. The Southwest Coast Path was created in 1978, and runs along the top of Zennor Head as part of its ,Zennor Head Walk – National Trust
retrieved 30 October 2012 following the edge of the cliffs closely. '' Zennor in Darkness'', the 1994 McKitterick Prize-winning novel by Helen Dunmore, was partly set around Zennor Head. In 2009 the headland suffered flooding which affected the cliff-top footpath. The promontory has been designated as part of the

Heritage Coast.

Geography and geology

Zennor Head is located on the north coast of Cornwall, England, facing the Atlantic Ocean. A headland extending some , it is surrounded by steep cliffs plunging into the sea below. It is west of the town of St Ives, and north-east of the town of

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

. The nearest human settlement is the village of Zennor, and the headland is flanked by two coves, Pendour and Porthzennor. The nearest headland is Gurnard's Head, 1.6 kilometres to the west.''The Z to Z of Great Britain''
Dixie Wills, Icon Books, 2005, , Access is from the South West Coast Path, or the B3306 road (West Cornwall coast road). There is a deep inlet known as Horseback Zawn on the western side, where seabirds nest. The headland is topped by an

Trig Point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The station is usually set up by a map ...

".Ordnance Survey Landranger Map 203, Land's End & Isles of Scilly, 2002, The Killas strata, which is exposed over the majority of Zennor Head, is a

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

formation laid down in the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

period, between approximately 415 and 375 million years ago ( myr). Zennor Head is on the surface boundary of the so-called "Land's End Granite", part of the Cornubian batholith which dates from 279 to 274 myr. However, the intrusion of the granite into the Killas strata altered it metamorphically into a shale-type rock.

Fauna and Flora

Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax -Penwith -Cornwall -flying-8b

Zennor Head is home to a variety of wildlife, including the

Cornish chough The red-billed chough, Cornish chough or simply chough ( ; ''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), is a bird in the crow family, one of only two species in the genus ''Pyrrhocorax''. Its eight subspecies breed on mountains and coastal cliffs from the we ...

(''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''). Grey seals (''Halichoerus grypus'') have been sighted off the coast. Many seabirds nest on the cliffs, especially around Horseback Zawn, including

herring gulls Herring gull is a common name for several birds in the genus ''Larus ''Larus'' is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution (by far the greatest species diversity is in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of its species are abundant and w ...

(''Larus argentatus'') and fulmars (''Fulmarus glacialis'').

Kestrels The term kestrel (from , derivative from , i.e. Ratchet (instrument), ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behavio ...

(''Falco tinnunculus'') hunt inland of the shoreline. The headland is primarily covered with grass, as well as heather (''Calluna vulgaris''), bracken ('' Pteridium aquilinum''), thyme ('' Thymus polytrichus'') and western gorse (''

Ulex gallii ''Ulex gallii'', the western gorse or dwarf furzeA R Clapham, T G Tutin, E F Warburg, ''Flora of the British Isles'', Cambridge, 1962, p. 332 is an evergreen shrub in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to the Atlantic coasts of western Europe: sou ...

''). In 1962, specimens of the comparatively rare western clover (''

Trifolium occidentale ''Trifolium occidentale'', the western clover, is a clover plant belonging to the genus ''Trifolium'' in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are white, similar to white clover (''Trifolium repens''), with which it has long been confused. T ...

'') were found on Zennor Head. The lichen ''Dirina massiliensis'' has also been found high on the acid

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

cliffs on the north-, seaward-side of the headland. The parasitic plant dodder ('' Cuscuta epithymum'') is found growing on gorse. There are also typical coastal flowering plants such as kidney vetch ('' Anthyllis vulneraria''), sea campion (''

Silene uniflora ''Silene uniflora'' is a species of flowering plant in the carnation family known by the common name sea campion. Description ''Silene uniflora'' is a perennial plant that forms a mat with stems growing outwards to as much as 30 cm. The ste ...

''), and thrift ('' Armeria maritima'').

Gallery

Perched rock, Zennor Head - geograph.org.uk - 78399.jpg, Perched rock at the foot of Zennor Head Common-Kestrel-4.jpg, Common kestrel Zennor Head - geograph.org.uk - 912882.jpg, Eastern flank Zawciag nadmorski Ameria maritima maritima.jpg, Thrift, a coastal plant Trewey_farm_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1483707.jpg, Zennor Head from inland Foka szara mateusz wlodarczyk.jpg, Grey seal Horseback Zawn, seaward end - geograph.org.uk - 1459372.jpg, Horseback Zawn

References

{{good article Headlands of Cornwall National Trust properties in Cornwall Zennor