Porthgwarra

Does anyone know how these caves were made and in what year approximately? I believe it was the work of a small Breton fishing community there.

Terry George s sennen cove website says Folklore has it that the tunnel from the slipway towards the road at Porthgwarra was used by smugglers - maybe ! - the more mundane explanation is that it was excavated by miners from St.Just to allow farmers to gather seaweed from the beach by horse and cart - seaweed is an excellent fertiliser. This is what my father , who lived in St Levan parish as a boy, told me too.

p.s. Meant to add; I don t have any definitive source for this story but the same purpose is quoted in the entry for St Levan parish in A complete parochial history of the county of Cornwall dated 1868;

According to The Book of St Levan , the tunnel was drilled by the St Just miners in the 1890s. The second tunnel links the beach with the rocks on the eastern side of the cove - where the small fishing boats used to be taken out of the water in the winter months before the slipway was built - theis tunnel was used to access the ullies (the 6 foot deep wells created by the fishermen moving rocks, and formerly covered with hinged lids, that were used to keep shellfish alive until they went to market).

Thanks Chill and agendall... That s a fascinating bit of reading