Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LIZARD (THE)

LIZARD (THE), a headland in the SW of Cornwall; 12 miles S by E of Helston. It is the most southerly promontory of England; and is generally the first land seen by ships on entering the English channel. It is the Promontorium Damnonium, or Ocrinum, of Ptolemy. Its modern name is supposed by some to have originated in the shape or the variegated colouring of its cliffs, as seen from the Channel; by others, to have been derived from the Cornish word Liazherd, signifying ''a projecting headland." Its cliffs consist chiefly off serpentine; and the fields near it are based on hornblende and talcomicaceous schist. The coast at and near it abounds in striking and romantic features; the chief of which are the Bumble, the Lion's Den, Daw's Hugo, Househole, Penolver, Belidden, the Chair, Bass Point, Hot Point, Kilkobben Cove, Parnvose Cove, Raven's Hugo, Dolor Hugo, the Balk of Landewednack, Cadge with village, the Devil's Frying Pan, Caerthillian ravine, Holestrow, the Yellow Carn, Tor Balk, Kinance Cove, the Rill headland, the Horse, Pigeon's Hugo, the Soap Rock, Vellan Point, Pradanack Head, Mullion Gull Rock, Mullion Cove, Mullion Island, Bellurian Cove, and others. Two lighthouses stand at the Lizard, 223 feet asunder; were erected in 1792; were worked by coal fires till 1813; are on bases 186 feet above sea-level; and show two fixed lights, visible at distances of 18 and 20 miles.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a headland"   (ADL Feature Type: "capes")
Administrative units: Cornwall AncC
Place names: LIZARD     |     LIZARD THE     |     THE LIZARD
Place: Lizard

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