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Pentire Head

headland in St Minver Highlands, Cornwall, England, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ7165243
Source-derived summary

Pentire Head (Cornish: Penn Tir, lit. 'headland') is a headland and peninsula on the Atlantic coast in North Cornwall, England, and is about one mile square. The headland projects north-west with Pentire Point at its north-west corner and The Rumps promontory at its north-east corner.

Etymology

The origin of the name is from Cornish penn (head) and tir (land): another headland with the name Pentire is further west near Crantock.

Geography

Pentire Point and Stepper Point stand at either side of the mouth of the River Camel estuary (Pentire to the north-east, Stepper to the south-west). To the south of Pentire Point is the small seaside resort of Polzeath. The coastline around the headland is owned by the National Trust, although the bulk of the headland itself is let to Pentire Farm.

The entire headland forms the Pentire Peninsula Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated for its geology and flora and fauna including nationally rare plants. Important examples noted include slates from the Upper Devonian period, several invertebrate species, predatory birds and grey seals. Pentire Head is formed of pillow lavas, while The Rumps consists of altered dolerite, and naturally occurring Prehnite has also been found on the cliffs. Other valuable minerals can be found and two mines have operated on the headland over the years.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Pentire Head” as headland in St Minver Highlands, Cornwall, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pentire, Head and headland.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 216-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Pentire, Head and headland providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Pentire Head”, the useful work is to connect “headland in St Minver Highlands, Cornwall, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7165243. Authority coordinates are 50.587, -4.932. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pentire Head”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pentire Head primary sources, Pentire Head archive and Pentire research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pentire Head” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.