Land's End

 

promontory, Cornwall, SW England, forming the westernmost extremity of the English mainland. Of wave-carved granite, it has cliffs c.60 ft (20 m) high. Offshore are reefs and rocky islets, on one of which is Longships Lighthouse. Land's End is a major tourist attraction.

Land's End (Cornish name: Penn an Wlas) is a headland on the Penwith peninsula, located near Penzance in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly tip of the southern mainland (for Great Britain as a whole it is Corrachadh Mòr, Ardnamurchan, Scotland which is 22 miles further west). Visible from Land's End is the Longships Lighthouse. The Longships, a few miles out, is a serpentine and quartz island. Offshore, midway between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, is the supposed location of the mythical lost land of Lyonesse, referred to in Arthurian literature.

The name has a particular resonance because it is so often used in outlining the length of Britain when races, walks and charitable events take place between Land's End and the Scottish village John o' Groats (the most north-easterly settlement in mainland Britain). The phrase Land's End to John o' Groats is used both as a literal journey and as a metaphor for great or all-encompassing distance.

There is a theme park at Land's End.

In 1769 The Antiquarian, William Borlase wrote that,

"Of this time we are to understand what Edward I. says (Sheringham. p. 129.) that Britain, Wales, and Cornwall, were the portion of Belinus, elder son of Dunwallo, and that that part of the Island, afterwards called England, was divided in three shares, viz. Britain, which reached from the Tweed, Westward, as far as the river Ex; Wales inclosed by the rivers Severn, and Dee; and Cornwall from the river Ex to the Land's-End".

See also

• Land's End Airport
• List of topics related to Cornwall

External links

• "Walking the length of Britain" Lands'End to John O'Groats a free e-book of this great journey
• Illustrated guide to Land's End
• A Few old Postcards of Lands End

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