Lamorna

Lamorna is not a common overnight stop, being pretty close to Mousehole and the start of the Mounts Bay Walk to Penzance. However when there is pressure on accommodation further along the trail there are some good B&B choices here. A robust granite harbour wall sits inside the very clear and blue waters of Lamorna Bay, waters with such clear visibility that divers flock here from Penzance. Sandwiched between two lumpy granite headlands the village is at the end of a beautiful lush wooded valley complete with its own bubbling stream.

Above the harbour one scar of human activity glares out in the shape of open granite quarry diggings, stone from here was taken all over the west country and even as far as London to build the Thames Embankment.

For those with time consider a short inland diversion from Lamorna to visit the Merry Maidens about ½ mile inland. This is probably Cornwall’s most famous stone circle. Nineteen stones, all said to be the petrified remains of maidens who were turned to stone for the crime of dancing on the Sabbath. The Pipers, a pair of 3 metre standing stones close by were the musicians who led the dance and who suffered the same fate. Close by, the Tregiffian Barrow or Fogou is a stunning megalithic chambered tomb very much in the style of those found on the Scilly’s and is around 5000 years old. All three can be visited easily as they are close together. Use the OS mapping to locate them and guide you up the wooded Lamorna Valley. 

The rocky little cove still has a few fishing boats and a good cafe where you can hire a kayak for an hours paddle around the bay.  The area is another magnet for painters, potters, craftsmen and writers. During the last century it was very popular with the nearby Newlyn School artist’s community. The village pub is a popular one and the subject of a novel about a murder in Cornwall by Martha Grimes, which takes the pubs name ‘The Lamorna Wink’. The Wink,  as the sign outside the pub shows, refers to a time when a “Lamorna wink” would hopefully provide you with some illicit free trade brandy from the landlord. A popular pub and a good stop off en-route to Penzance.