Land’s End is on the south-western tip of mainland England in the county of Cornwall and the signpost featured above left will have been photographed by tourists thousands of times over the years, many not paying attention to the lack of an apostrophe! The end of the land makes it Land’s End, not Lands End, which implies the action of multiple lands ending there. Some even put the apostrophe after the wrong letter, i.e. Lands’ End, meaning the end of multiple lands. There is only one England, of course, and thankfully in 2018 Cornwall Council voted to finally remedy the confusion and the apostrophe now takes its rightful place!
Land’s End has spectacular views from its cliff-tops. The cliffs are granite and their steepness attracts many rock-climbers. There is a hotel and a theme park in the vicinity and the landmark is so popular with tourists that they are advised to pre-book their car parking spaces. The nearest town is Penzance, 9 miles away, and the nearest village is Sennen. The A30 road from London finishes at Land’s End, as do many charity runs, walks and drives, having started at John O’Groats, or vice-versa, a distance of 874 miles (according to the signpost).
(Top images LtoR: Lewis Clarke & Rod Allday, both at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)
