Cornish Coastline

Cornwall has a long coastline over 300 miles in length. For the naturalists Cornwall has an interesting coastline comprised of all the various coastal habitats, rocky cliffs, single beaches, sandy beaches sand dunes and salt marshes.

Cliffs at Rinsey

Cornwall because of its location a peninsular jutting out into the ocean surrounded by sea, has a climate that differs from the rest of mainland Britain. Its climate is more temperate, rarely suffering from frost and cooled by sea breezes in summer. However it does tend to suffer from higher winds and storms in the autumn and winter.

The north coast of Cornwall faces the Atlantic as such there are more storms and even in summer there is a good amount of surf. This stormier coast plus the currents of the Atlantic, make the beaches a good location to find strandings of exotic plants and animals that may have originated from as far away as the Caribbean.

The south coast faces the Channel which tends to be less stormy with little surf in the summer. However there are storms on this sheltered part of the coast, but the affects strongly depend on the direction of the wind.

Our coastline is dynamic, it is continually changing, the change being driven by the elements water and wind. Much of this change is gradual not obvious to the observer in their lifetime, but now and again one event will drastically change a portion of the coast. Fortunately most shore life will adapt to slow change, however cannot cope with fast change. Except for the odd natural sudden change most abrupt events are man made. Man himself is the most likely source of the destruction of shorelife.