Less than three years after visiting John o’Groats, our holiday to the south of England this summer took us to the most south-westerly point: Land’s End. The tip of land at the far end of Cornwall is the starting (or finishing) point for those making the journey between the two most distant parts of the British mainland.
Being in the more populous southern part of Britain, Land’s End is much more prepared for visitors, with a large car park and a small collection of buildings in a “theme park”-type layout. The last leg of the route is along a country road, but reference to a map told me that we were on the A30: a 284-mile-long trunk (non-motorway) road which has lead from Hounslow in West London to the very end of country since the 17th century.
On arrival, close to the end of the day, we were pleased (in an anti-social way) to find that we’d missed the majority of the tourist visitors, with an all-but-empty car park, shuttered shops, and only a couple of other people milling about. Skirting the “theme park”, we made our way to the headland viewpoint, noted the faded warning signs to stay away from the cliff edge, then stepped over the low rope to sit on the grass and enjoy the view, before venturing a little further to get a few photos from a safe, but less trodden, spot.
The weather was a bit breezy but we chose to enjoy the sunset, the vast emptiness of the view, and fish and chips from the hotel restaurant on the promontory, whilst carefully guarding our dinner from the sudden arrival of a group of interested, narrow-eyed gulls. All-in-all, a nice memory, although we preferred the headland at Lizard, about an hour’s drive further east.
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