Huge cliff fall in Cornwall sees footpath completely destroyed

  • Watch the cliff fall at Pentreath Beach

An eyewitness has captured the dramatic footage of a huge cliff fall in Cornwall.

A large section of the cliff began falling onto Pentreath Beach, on Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula, on Sunday 31 January and has continued to move over the past few days.

The rock fall means the coast path has had to be diverted for safety, as tonnes of soil and rubble have plunged down the cliffs towards the sea.

Rock falls are a regular feature along this this stretch of Cornwall's coast  - but the scale of this latest fall above the remote Pentreath beach has taken some locals by surprise.

Dave Stevens captured footage of the cliff fall. Credit: Dave Stevens

Former coastguard Dave Stevens spotted the rockfall while out walking and captured the footage on Tuesday 2 February.

He said: ''A fair amount of stuff actually came down in one fell swoop, there's thousands of tonnes down there and it's moving all the time. It does happen now and then, but not in the size it's happened down there.''

Dave, who has lived in the Lizard village his entire life said the area was "dangerous" before this most recent cliff fall.

He has warned visitors to "know the dangers" as it has not been cordoned off.

Right of way officers for Cormac have been diverting the coast path and installing fencing for safety.

Richard Hocking, from Cormac, said: ''It's very difficult because a lot of these what we call catastrophic failures happen immediately and we don't necessarily get any signs they are going to happen.'

''There was water building up at the top of the stone hedge at the top of the failure, this has then percolated the ground, saturating it which then actually led to the collapse of the cliffs.''

An ancient Cornish hedge marking the coastal path had also fallen as a result.

An employee for the National Trust said in a Facebook post that Cornwall Council's right of way officer and a geologist were assessing the cliff fall at Pentreath.

They said: "In the meantime please give the area a wide berth."

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