Читать книгу Southern England - Peter Friend - Страница 34

A remarkable feature of the peninsula of West Cornwall (Figs 50 and 51), as it narrows towards Land’s End, is the contrast between the spectacular coastal scenery and the scenery inland. The rocky coastal cliffs and sharply indented coves reflect West Cornwall’s exposure to the prevailing Atlantic storms, and contrast starkly with the inland scenery of rolling – though often rocky -hillsides, carved into a network of small valleys and streams.

The main features of the inland landscape appear to have formed over millions of years, and ultimately reflect the bedrock pattern that has been inherited from the Variscan mountain building that ended 300 million years ago. In contrast, the coastal landscape is clearly much younger, and much of it has been produced by changes in sea level that have occurred since the last main cold phase of the Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago. There is some evidence of earlier sea levels but this is more difficult to evaluate, as it has generally been removed by more recent erosional events.

FIG 50. Location map for Area 1.

I have divided West Cornwall into three Landscapes (A to C), each with distinctive bedrock geology (Fig. 52).