Day 14 - 3 mile beach
- Paul Juckett
- Jun 18, 2020
- 2 min read
Starting out at Godrevy point, the weather is beginning to catch up with me! A heavy sea mist was reducing visibility considerably. The Godrevy point Lighthouse was visible though!
Once you come down the path off Godrevy, you walk through some wetlands that are protected habitats for wildlife and wild birds, before you climb the sand dunes and are faced with a choice. You can walk the 3 miles of sand stretching ahead of you or you can walk through the dunes (which is the official route of the coast path).
I decided to walk the beach on the outward leg of today's walk.
The beach is wide at low tide, with probably 800 yards from the waters edge to the high coastal bluffs that rise up on the inland edge. It struck me that the beach is very similar to Omaha Beach in Normandy, having visited Omaha and studied the landings, I wondered whether this beach had been used for training those troops (research after the walk reveals that it was not, but as there was a very big explosives factory among the dunes from the late 1800's, which supplied the Royal Navy during WWI, until the 1920's, and the area was used to store explosives until 1960, so perhaps it was a decision not to draw attention to the area).
Below is a picture of the Towans as the beach is known.
Once you get round the headland, three miles on, you are on the outskirts of Hayle, the World heritage mining site. The docks are still in use, although the number and size of vessel has shrunk!
Once you walk into the centre of Hayle, the walk to Lelant Saltings station is all along roads that take you along the River Hayle past RSPB sanctuaries until the first bridging point. A few hundred yards further on brings you to Lelant Saltings halt on the St. Ives side of the estuary.
Not much to see here, since 2019 only two trains a day stop here, whereas prior to that it was the busiest station on the branch line and the site of the park and ride for St. Ives (the station at St. Erth now fulfills the role of Park & Ride hub after redevelopment in 2019).
The return walk allowed me to walk through the dunes between Hayle and Godrevy. The dunes are large and go back from the beach quite a way. When you're among them, it is easy to lose your way as often, the sea can be heard, but not seen!
The National Explosives Factory was sited here as the dunes gave great protection from accidental explosions and the remains of several explosive stores can be found hidden amongst the dunes.
The photo below gives a view of the dunes around the location of the (massive) explosives factory.
For further information and some good aerial shots of the site of the factory, a good starting point is this site:
For me, another 13.8 miles knocked off, so now I rest!
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