Plymouth Hoe

The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall.

The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word hoh, a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot and heel (a term that survives in a few other placenames, notably Sutton Hoo).

Until the early 17th century large outline images of the giants Gog and Magog (or Goemagot and Corineus) had for a long time been cut into the turf of the Hoe exposing the white limestone beneath.

[5] Plymouth Hoe is perhaps best known for the probably apocryphal story that Sir Francis Drake played his famous game of bowls here in 1588 while waiting for the tide to change before sailing out with the English fleet to engage with the Spanish Armada.

[9] Below this site was the Bull Ring (now a memorial garden),[8] and a grand pleasure pier, started in 1880, which provided a dance hall, refreshment, promenading and a landing place for boat trips.

The largest commemorates the Royal Naval dead of the two world wars; its central obelisk is by Robert Lorimer and was unveiled in 1924, while the surrounding sunken garden was added by Edward Maufe in 1954.

There is always a great deal of activity on the water, including frequent warship movements, ferries going and coming from France and Spain, fishing trawlers and a swarm of larger and smaller sailing boats.

[17] In the early 21st century Plymouth Hoe became notorious for the practice of tombstoning, which involves leaping feet-first into the sea from any accessible high point.