Cornwall: The South Coast of Cornwall

Introduction

The south coast of Cornwall is more subdued and indented than the north coast, and receives waves generated by winds across the English Channel as well as south-westerly ocean swell from the Atlantic (Bird 1998). Wave action is generally light to moderate, with large storm waves arriving only occasionally. Mean spring tide range averages 4.7–4.8 m.

Slope-over-wall profiles have steep vegetated slopes descending to rocky cliffs that are usually less than 10 m high (Arber 1949). The proportion of rocky cliff to coastal slope is less than on much of the north coast, but on the western side of the Lizard Peninsula, exposed to Atlan­­tic swell and storm waves, vertical cliffs rise locally to 50–70 m. Head­lands and promontories correspond with higher ground or harder outcrops, the intervening bays and coves occupying lower ground or softer outcrops. The coastline runs in along the sides of several large branching inlets known as rias, formed where the sea has invaded the lower...