PK Porthcurno

Porthcurno (Cornish: Porthkornow, Porthcornow, meaning "pinnacle cove", see below) is a small village covering a small valley and beach on the south coast of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in a civil and an ecclesiastical parish, both named St Levan, which comprise Porthcurno, diminutive St Levan itself, Trethewey and Treen. It is centred 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of the railway, market and resort town of Penzance and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland. Road access is via the north end of the valley along a long cul-de-sac with short branches off the B3283 and land traditionally associated with the village, including its beach, is on the South West Coast Path.

The Minack Theatre (Cornish: Gwaryjy Minack) is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea. The theatre is at Porthcurno, 4 miles (6.4 km) from Land's End in Cornwall, England. The Minack's performing season runs from Easter to the end of October and includes a wide range of music and theatre. Each year, the Minack produces several professional productions as well as hosting visiting companies. It has appeared in many lists of the world's most spectacular theatres.The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade, who moved to Cornwall after the First World War and built a house for herself and her mother on land at Minack Point for £100. Her sister was the feminist dystopian author Katharine Burdekin, who lived with them from the 1920s. In 1929, Rowena Cade became involved with a local village group of players who staged Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in a nearby meadow at Crean, repeating the production the next year. They decided that their next production would be The Tempest and Miss Cade offered her cliff garden as a suitable location for the play. Miss Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, made a terrace and rough seating, hauling materials down from the house or up via the winding path from the beach below. In 1932, The Tempest was performed with the sea as a dramatic backdrop, to great success. Miss Cade resolved to improve the theatre, working over the course of the winter months each year (with the help of Billy Rawlings, Charles and Thomas Angove and other friends), to create the theatre that exists today. She was still working on it well into her 80s. Rowena Cade died in 1983 shortly before her 90th birthday. In 1944, the theatre was used as a location for the Gainsborough Studios film Love Story, starring Stewart Granger and Margaret Lockwood but inclement weather forced them to retreat to a studio mock-up. In 1955, the first dressing rooms were built. In the 1970s, the theatre was managed by Lawrence Shove. Since 1976 the theatre has been registered as a charitable trust and is now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The theatre is open for visitors throughout the year though visiting days are limited in the winter. The 90th anniversary of the Minack was celebrated with a production of The Tempest performed by Hertfordshire Players in August 2022.

St Levan Church, St Levan is a parish church in the Church of England located in St Levan, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Until 1864 the church was a chapelry of the Royal Peculiar of the Deanery of St Buryan. It is now part of the united benefice of St Buryan and St Sennen.

St Levan (Cornish: Selevan) is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is rural with a number of hamlets of varying size with Porthcurno probably being the best known. Hewn out of the cliff at Minack Point and overlooking the sea to the Logan Rock is the open-air Minack Theatre, the inspiration of Rowena Cade in the early 1930s. St Levan lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south-west England from Somerset to Dorset passes by on the cliffs. There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated for the vegetation and geology, and Gwennap Head in particular, is favoured by birdwatchers, many who travel the length and breadth of Britain to watch rare seabirds.

Pedn Vounder (grid reference SW393223) is a tidal beach on the south coast of the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, England. It is immediately to the west of the Logan Rock headland, below Treen Cliff. The name is from the Cornish 'pen' (head, end) and 'an vounder' (of the lane).Access to the beach is either by boat, or on foot from the coastal path along the cliffs. The top of this path may be approached from Porthcurno, approximately 0.75 mi (1.21 km) to the west, or from Treen, approximately 0.62 mi (1.00 km) to the north. The final stage of the descent from the coastal path requires some climbing down steep rocks at the western end of the beach. It is sometimes possible to walk from Porthcurno beach along the shore, during low water of a spring tide. In common with some of the other secluded coves on the Penwith peninsula, this beach is an unofficial naturist beach. Signs on the cliff above the beach warn that swimming off the far side of the sand bar is dangerous due to strong currents. In 1880, a wooden hut was built above the beach to house a submarine communications cable from Brest, France. It connected with a land line running via the Trereen valley, and by Burnewhall to Sheffield and on to Newlyn and Penzance. At this time Porthcurno was known world-wide as the British terminal of submarine telegraph cables.

Trethewey (Cornish: Tredhewi) is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It forms part of St Levan civil parish. The village includes a Wesleyan chapel and schoolroom, built in 1868.Trethewey lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park. The first records of the name may be preserved in the "Calendar of inquisitions post mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office (1904) "which contains a probate inquiry as to the birthdate of 11 September 1296 and the birthplace of Treguwal of Roger Bloyou, although it may be the name of a different or extinct village.

Treen (Cornish: Tredhin) (grid reference SW3923) is a small village in the parish of St Levan, in the far west of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is about 3 miles (4.8 km) inland from Land's End on a short unclassified spur road from the B3315. Treen overlooks the Penberth Valley and sits about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) inland from Treryn Dinas, an Iron Age promontory fort, or cliff castle, with five lines of fortification. On the headland is the Logan Rock and to the west is Pedn Vounder tidal beach, which is popular with naturists. Treen Cliff is to either side of Treryn Dinas. The village has a popular pub, The Logan Rock Inn, a village shop, cafe and campsite with views to both Logan Rock and nearby Porthcurno. Treen lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park. The first records of the name is Tredyn (1304) and Trethyn (1314) and means farm + fort; being near the cliff castle at the Logan Rock. A description of the village by Francis Kilvert who visited Cornwall for two weeks in 1870:... and we came to a strange bare wild village where everything was made of granite – cottages, walls, roofs, pigs "crows" (sties), sheds, outbuildings, nothing but granite, enormous slabs of granite set up on end and roofed with other slabs. This village should not be confused with the hamlet of Treen, in Zennor parish on the north coast, above Gurnard's Head.

Treen Cliff is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) located on the Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall, England, UK, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-west of Penzance. First notified in 1951, with a revision in 1973, and a further notification on 1 July 1986, it is 49.3 hectares (122 acres) in area, stretching from grid reference SW387220 to SW402225. Designated for both for its biological and geological interest, part of the site, Treryn Dinas, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument consisting of a "cliff castle" with four ramparts and ditches and the Logan Rock. It is within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the Penwith Heritage Coast and is part owned and managed by the National Trust.

Crean is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles (5 km) east of Land's End.

Bottoms is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, UK. It is located within the civil parish of St Levan, 5 miles (8.0 km) south-west of the town of Penzance. The hamlet of Trebehor lies further west. It contains St Levan CP School, St Levan's community primary school.

The Logan Rock (Cornish: Men Omborth, meaning balanced stone) near the village of Treen in Cornwall, England, UK, is an example of a logan or rocking stone. Although it weighs some 80 tons, it was dislodged in 1824 by a group of British seamen, intent on showing what the Navy could do. However following complaints from local residents for whom the rock had become a tourist attraction and source of income, the seamen were forced to restore it. Today the Logan Rock still rocks, but with much less ease than it did in the past. The South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south-west England from Somerset to Dorset passes by on the cliffs to the north.

Polgigga (or Poljigga) is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the B3315 Land's End to Penzance road and within the civil parish of St Levan.Polgigga is 8 miles (13 km) west of Penzance and 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Land's End. The hamlet used to be home to its own winery and a blacksmith's and is now almost entirely residential. The poet and writer Dylan Thomas lived here for a short period in 1936. Nearby settlements include Trebehor, Trethewey and Bottoms.