Category: Natural Lizard
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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,…
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The Lizard – inspires literature
One of the great things about being a geographer is that it is an inherently interdisciplinary subject. Being a geographer is like having a passport and living in an intellectual world where there are no visa restrictions: you can roam wherever you please. My particular geographical interests have been shaped by a lifelong…
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The landscape history and archaeology of The Lizard’s downs and moors
In this article, Peter Dudley, of Cornwall Council’s Historic Environment Service (Projects), introduces us to the rich history and archaeology of The Lizard’s moors and downlands, from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages up to more recent times. Read on to discover something of the history of place names, commoning practices, settlements, barrows and farming,…
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Natural Lizard
There are several words that crop up over and over again in any description of the natural beauty of the Lizard: contrasting, unique, complex, rare, special, diverse…. Browse through these pages and you’ll begin to discover why these glowing terms are so deserved. Each of the links in the text below takes you to a…
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Habitats of The Lizard
This article is an extract from Classic British Wildlife Sites –The Lizard Peninsula by Andrew Byfield in British Wildlife, 3 (2), pp. 92–105 (1991). Travelling from north to south across the Peninsula one is immediately struck by the flat treeless nature of much of the landscape. The flatness is testimony to the force of wave action…
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Wonderfully rich botanically
This article is an extract from Classic British Wildlife Sites –The Lizard Peninsula by Andrew Byfield in British Wildlife, 3 (2), pp. 92–105 (1991). So Why is The Lizard so wonderfully rich botanically? As long ago as 1848 the eminent botanist the Rev C A Johns commented `to the sharp eyed botanist I firmly believe that…
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The Lizard land use
Location The most southerly point of England, The Lizard is sparsely populated, with just over 3% of the area being defined as urban: settlements are mainly being concentrated along the coastline. Almost all of the Character Area lies within the Cornwall National Landscape, 23% is defined as a Less Favoured Area, and 20% is designated…
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A short history of botanical discovery on The Lizard
This article is an extract from Classic British Wildlife Sites – The Lizard Peninsula by Andrew Byfield in British Wildlife, 3 (2), pp. 92–105 (1991). When the eminent Cambridge botanist, John Ray, recorded ‘Juniper or Firre-leaved heath (Erica vagans), with many flower, by the way-side going from Helston to Lizard point in Cornwall, plentifully’ [sic.] in 1667,…
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Lizard Geology
The rocks of the Lizard Peninsula form one of the most interesting suite of rocks in Britain. A Pre-Cambrian age (older than 600 million years) has been assigned to them, although their exact date is difficult to pin down. The southern half of the Peninsula comprises a complex array of metamorphic and igneous rocks including…