Lotte Brundle
Let’s voyage offshore to a savagely windy night in 1669. Dark waves pounded the hull of a passing Spanish galleon trapped in the eye of the tempest. The ship, which went by the name San Salvador, could only cope for so long. By daybreak, it was wrecked on the rocks, its crew lost and its bounty of silver coins sunk. Over the centuries that followed, these dollar pieces washed up on the coast around the hamlet of Gunwalloe, ghostly monetary mementoes of a long-gone storm.
The path to Dollar Cove beach at Gunwalloe.
Thus runs the legend around Dollar Cove, in Gunwalloe, Helston, on the Lizard peninsula’s north-west shoreline. Its history, however, stretches back even longer. Gunwalloe is one of Cornwall’s very oldest settlements, being the region’s first entry in the Domesday Book of 1086, and even has remnants of Bronze Age archaeology among its tussocky dunes and slopes.
Fans of Aiden Turner's rather rugged turn in the BBC hit series Poldark may remember the scene where he brought sailors and goods ashore after a shipwreck. That was filmed at Dollar Cove.
Waves breaking at Dollar Cove.
The Cornish coast looked particularly inviting as the backdrop to Aidan Turner's character in Poldark.
Today, the cove itself is a wild, rocky place, backed by low-slung hills. Its beauty is of the craggy kind and, as somewhere to find relative calm, it’s usually a safe bet. Does shipwrecked coinage still appear on the sands? There’s only one way to find out.
Visiting Dollar Cove
With a large National Trust car park nearby, Dollar Cove is perfect to visit if you're driving. While you're at it, it may be worth paying a visit to A its next-door neighbour, Church Cove, which, alongside the former location, makes us Gunwalloe Beach. Church Cove also has a small café and toilets and Loe Pool isn't very far away if you wanted to make a day of it.
Church Cove and Dollar Cove from above.
Church Cove is a twee vision, and close by for a visitor from Dollar Cove.
Idyllic views and well worth a visit.
Loe Pool is Cornwall's largest natural lake.
-
19 charming homes for sale, from picture-perfect cottages to beachside retreats, as seen in Country LifeThis week's selection of some of the best homes to come to the market via Country Life this week.
-
You can’t always rely on the Great British summer — but you can rely on its watchesBritish watchmakers have excelled themselves in recent months — releasing bright and beautiful timepieces that you'll want on your wrist through summer, and beyond.
-
Puffins and shearwaters, skuas and terns, gannets and gulls and guillemots and wings, these are a few of our favourite things (seabirds)From a heroic long-distance swimmer to a producer of spectacularly eerie sound effects, the seabirds seen swooping and diving over British waters have all manner of singular skills.
-
The red kite is a soaraway success story, having escaped extinction to become a familiar sight in our skies againUnhurried in flight and with a sideline in stolen goods, the handsome red kite is the gentleman thief of the raptor world, writes Mark Cocker.
-
‘This isn't just silver — it's a story of a man who fell in love with a woman who society deemed unworthy': The large silver sculpture of rutting stags that scandalised Victorian societyGeorge Harry Grey, the 7th Earl of Stamford, was shunned when he married a circus performer. This sculpture was his way of showing the world that he was a fighter — and it's now been acquired by the National Trust.
-
The life that thrives among the dead: How wildlife finds a home in the graveyards and churchyards of BritainHome to a veritable ‘Noah’s Ark of species’, thanks to never being ploughed, sprayed or fertilised, our churchyards offer a sacred haven for flora and fauna, says Laura Parker.
-
Peregrine falcons went to the edge of extinction in the 1960s — today, there are more of them than at any time since the Middle AgesIn the latest instalment of Mark Cocker's 'Winging it' column, he looks at the peregrine, a bird of prey with astonishing speed and super strength.
-
I lichen the look of you: A rare lichen-covered fingerpost that's been frozen in time and donated to the Natural History MuseumA fingerpost, covered in 12 different species of lichen, has been donated to the Natural History Museum by Exmoor National Park — but they had some trouble getting it there.
-
Marcus Janssen: The man behind Schöffel on Chelsea Lifejackets, bagging a 'MacNab' and recognising the best of the British countrysideMarcus Janssen of Schöffel joins the Country Life podcast.
-
Beyond Stonehenge: The ancient moorland megaliths and grand stone rings that you can enjoy without the tourist hordesWith their potent blend of wild looks and mystery, Britain’s ancient sites have an enduring magnetism — and there are far more of them than you might imagine.
