Access all areas!

Hi everyone,

Im Tom and im lucky enough to have just started working here as a Seasonal Access Ranger. I have joined the Lizard team having being previously working over in penwith with Trust there. I have been here for 3 weeks now and enjoying every minute of it and im sure you will hear plenty from me on the blog. If you would like to know more about what I was previously doing in penwith and a great blog entry on the life of volunteers in and out of work then please check out the blog for west cornwall too at: http://ntwestcornwall.co.uk/.

Im going to be working with the full time and regular volunteers aswell as groups on primarily access related projects and we have been quite busy already. To help me find my feet we have been working in the Poltesco valley close to the office and workshop on some small jobs that needed doing,  I will be venturing out onto the miles of coastpath that we look after around the peninsula. Much of my work will be centred around the damage that the winter weather has caused to our footpaths.

We have installed a couple of stone cross drains to help to protect the foundations of our awsome new bridge, alot of water from 2 converging paths was being channelled toward the bridge and now it has been caught before it can get that far. The gullies have had a step placed at the bottom and then backfilled with larger stone underneath smaller surfacing material to allow good drainage and to hold the material in place. We have also patched up and strengthened the edges of the steps that were gullied out due to this water. The hedge next to our house had also collapsed into an important drainage ditch so I made a quick repair on that.

 

Barefoot Hike at Penrose

Join us this Saturday for the new craze of barefoot walking- a must-have sensory experience! Kick off your shoes and discover amazing textures under foot. Find out why barefoot walking is so good for you from Helston's barefoot podiatrist.

Meet at Helston's fairground car park, opposite the boating lake on the B3304, at 11am, £2 per person. Booking essential on 01326 554715.

Two new homes for feathered friends



Our local barn owls will be spoiled for choice thanks to two new made to measure homes! Owl boxes have been put up in a large modern livestock barn on one of our tenanted farms on the Lizard, as a way to encourage the owls to stay and possibly even breed in future years. Owls have regularly been seen about the farm,  so we know they are keen on the neighbourhood. Must be a good supply of voles!

Many thanks to local barn owl experts Mark and Cat for their advice on positioning of the boxes, and to Matt and Edwin for supplying the new homes, as part of their wider voluntary work monitoring and encouraging barn owls on The Lizard.  Ranger Tom and volunteer Jenna put up two boxes in the same barn, because there are times when the male and female like to roost separately, and also so the pair can escape their young when they get to the noisy teenage phase, but still keep a watchful eye on them! 

We look forward to seeing who moves in!

Rachel







A new bridge for Carleon Cove

 

Walkers passing through Carleon Cove on the Lizard are in for a treat, thanks to the completion of a stunning new footbridge that carries the South West Coast Path over the Poltesco River.

The bridge has been designed to reflect the curved lines of a boat, and is made in oak and larch, with stainless steel tension wires.

We knew the old bridge was near the end of its life, so we decided to take the opportunity to do something different, to build a bridge that really did justice to this lovely place. We wanted a bridge that encouraged people to stop and linger. Most importantly, it had to be a good place to play Pooh sticks as that’s always a favourite with the many school groups we bring here!

The bridge is nestled within sycamores, just behind the beach and the ruins of a Victorian serpentine stoneware factory, now reclaimed by nature.

The bridge was designed by local architect Matthew Robinson and constructed by Ben Harris of River Oak. Working together with Matt we wanted to incorporate something of the location, it's landscape and history, in the design, hence the boat inspired curves and local stone finials. Poltesco was once the base for a small seine netting fleet, so boats and stone are at the heart of the cove’s history.

Building it has been quite a challenge, not least because every component had to be small enough to carry in by hand down the path! The whole thing was made in Ben's workshop, before being dismantled, transported to site and then put back together like a giant 3D jigsaw.

I’m sure the many walkers out on the coast path will appreciate this fantastic new bridge. We would like to thank Natural England for their generous grant towards this project, and the South West Coast Path team for their support.

Why not pay the new bridge a visit, Pooh sticks optional! 

Rachel 

Another Kynance stunner.

Another blue sky day at Kynance. A great day for sign painting, which is exactly what one of our invaluable volunteers based at Poltesco was doing today at Kynance. Here is some of her handy work. I heard a passing visitor remark what a good job she'd done and she did........

If you every wind your way down the road to Kynance to the car park you'll see something like this...........

....don't be put off by the dusty car park and turn around, you are only minutes away from one of the prettiest coves in the country.

Andrew - Car Park Ranger -Kynance Cove.

Stunning day at Kynance Cove.

One of the best days so far this year at Kynance...........

A walk out to the cliff produced this lovely contrasted view of the vibrant yellow gorse and the azure blue of the water in the cove. Taken as the tide dropped to it's lowest point of the day (low water today 14:45). Low tide is of course a great time to come to Kynance in order to be able to get onto the sand and safely view the beautiful Serpentine caves. Arm yourself with tide tables to avoid disappointment.

Whilst out at the view point I had the pleasure of engaging 4 visitors to the cove from Lancashire in conversation. I mentioned that it was a perfect day to see Adders at Kynance. They had never seen one, having visited the cove for 26 years. On my return to the car park, I took a brief detour into the narrow paths through the gorse and had the considerable pleasure of asking them to join me two minutes later to see their first Adder. Here he is, warming himself in the sunshine............

If you are fortunate enough to see one, leave them be and do not allow a dog to approach. Our advice at this time of year in particular is keep your dog on a lead and keep to well used paths when walking them. As demonstated by my Lancashire visitors, keeping to the main paths will rarely produce encounters. Heavy footed adults will cause the Adder the slip back into the undergrowth usually unseen, but a dog surprising one could result in it striking. They are particularly venomous at this time of year as they come out of hibernation.

As a footnote, the beautiful sight of the cove and the first sight of an Adder resulted in one of my visitors coming back to the Kynance Information Hut and joining the National Trust. By joining at Kynance, his subscription will help us keep Kynance as beautiful and unsploilt as it was today.

Andrew - Car Park Ranger - Kynance Cove.