Its intricate and varied granite cliffs include the famous Chair Ladder crag, making it a popular destination for recreational climbers of all abilities.

Men building the nearby coastguard houses used ladders to save three of the crew and a further twenty-three are buried in a mass grave in St Levan churchyard.

[7] Roskestral Farm was put up for auction in May 1887 and included Tol Pedn Penwith, the Funnel Hole and portions of Carn Glaze Common.

A second storey was added to give extra height to the watch room after a French trawler was wrecked at the foot of Wireless Point, Porthcurno on 14 March 1956.

It is renowned for its relative abundance of passing marine bird species with many common species such as northern gannet (Morus bassanus), Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), common guillemot, (Uria aalge), razorbill (Alca torda), northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).

[15] Many birds follow the coast as they migrate north in spring to breed or head south in the autumn to overwinter in warmer places.

[16] From 2007 to 2011, the Seawatch SW survey was organised by Dr Russell Wynn with the aim of recording the numbers of targeted species from a designated location close to the cliff edge on Gwennap Head.

The survey ran from 15 July to 15 October each year and most of the recording was by volunteers who spent up to twelve hours a day on seawatch.

The main targeted species were Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) and basking shark, along with the ocean sunfish (or common mola).

[17] During a seawatch on 28 August 2015 a red-billed tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) was seen over the Runnel Stone, a bird that usually frequents tropical areas.

Near the edges of the cliff there is maritime grassland and includes the red data species, perennial centaury (Centaurium scilloides), and early meadow-grass (Poa infirma), along with the rare hairy bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus subbiflorus) and yellow bartsia (Parentucellia viscosa).

Despite many searches by botanists the species had not been seen in Cornwall (and England) since 1962 (or possibly 1967), and survived on only one Welsh site; coastal footpaths of Pembrokeshire National Park, Wales.

Migrant moths include rush veneer (Nomophila noctuella), rusty-dot pearl (Udea ferrugalis), hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) and silver Y (Autographa gamma).