Author: Amanda Scott
-
NHS Wild Wellbeing Across The Lizard
Summary Over the past twelve months, the National Trust, in partnership with the NHS Mental Health Support Team and Natural England, has had the pleasure of welcoming parents and their primary-aged children to a series of free Family Wellbeing Sessions at Penrose and Kennack. These sessions were designed to help families explore emotional and mental…
-
Kynance Gate Hut Circle Settlement
Summary Kynance Gate hut circle settlement was part of Cornwall National Landscape’s A Monumental Improvement Project which aimed to ensure that 40 scheduled monuments across Cornwall National Landscape were better protected, identified and enjoyed by a wider range of people. The project Kynance Gate hut circle settlement comprises two groups of stone dwellings and stone…
-
Linking the Lizard
By working across boundaries, we hope to ensure that The Lizard Peninsula continues to be internationally recognised for its rich and unique wildlife, landscape, cultural heritage and for its outdoor opportunities, which are welcoming to, and valued by, local people and visitors alike. The core partners of the Linking The Lizard Countryside Partnership are:
-
Gunwalloe: Winnianton Farm Landscape Project
Summary Phase 2 of a project to further restore the landscape through demolition of inappropriate buildings, adaptive reuse of traditional buildings, improved visitor experience (new accessible toilets and café), increased understanding of local heritage and improvements to the surrounding farmland through habitat creation and extended public access. Progress Since 2018, the National Trust and local…
-
Reawakening The Lizard
Wildlife Groundswell’s exciting new project: nature recovery across the Lizard peninsula Drawing together and expanding on Wildlife Groundswell’s existing projects, and in collaboration with other organisations, Reawakening The Lizard is our most ambitious project to date! It aspires to restore nature on the Lizard peninsula to create a connected, diverse landscape, rich in plants and animals,…
-
Historic bones and teeth discovered at Lizard Point
Excavations have been underway at the National Trust’s Lizard Point in Cornwall after a young visitor found a historic tooth which was identified as human. The discovery Arthur, aged seven, found a collection of teeth in the ground while exploring Lizard Point in August 2025. He showed them to Wildlife Watchpoint volunteer Ken Wallace who,…
-
Knopper Gall
Knopper Galls, induced by a parasitic wasp, are one of the many kinds of galls found on our native oak trees. Head to our section on invertebrates to find out more. Photo: Amanda Scott
-
Knopper Gall
Knopper Galls are found on the acorns of Pedunculate Oaks, and are also reliant on the Turkey Oak during their life cycle. The knobbly growths are produced by the Knopper Gall Wasp. Photo: Amanda Scott
-
Swift
Those screaming cries, that wheeling flight – the sound and sight of summer. Photo: © Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
-
Silver-studded Blue
Silver-studded Blues are on the cusp of emerging. Look for the bright blue males flitting among the heather and grasses. Photo: © Natural England/Allan Drewitt
-
Brimstone
Only occasionally recorded on The Lizard and in the west of Cornwall, elsewhere Brimstones are among the first butterflies to be spotted in early spring. Photo: Amanda Scott
-
Mistletoe
Mistletoe’s stronghold is central and southern England, but it is scattered locally elsewhere in the south and southwest. Its balls of evergreen leaves and stems are easiest to spot in winter, hanging from the bare branches of the trees on which it is partly parasitic. Photo: Amanda Scott
-
Common Mussel
The Common (or Blue) Mussel is a common find on our shores. Look for them attached to rocks in rockpools, and in the zone between high and low tide. Photo: Amanda Scott
-
Willow woes
During the summer of 2023 there was a subtle but significant browning of the leaves on some of the Grey Willow, Salix cinerea, in the willow carr (wet woodland) at Penrose. Although noticeable we were unable to get to the bottom of the issue then. However, this year the browning leaves have returned with a vengeance…
-
Back to the future: restoring threatened metapopulations on the Lizard Peninsula – update, August 2024
A progress update on The Lizard’s Species Recovery Programme-funded project Following our busy winter period of habitat management work across the west of the Lizard, we learnt in March 2024 that we had been successfully awarded Species Recovery Programme (SRP) funding to continue our Back to the Future Lizard SRP Project into a second year. This funding…
-
Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil
If you ever wondered how Bird’s-foot Trefoil got its name, you have to wait for the seedpods to appear. Photo: Amanda Scott