Sea horses

On Cornwall's coastal clifftops, Melanie O'Shea meets the hardy grazing ponies that are helping to restore the land, so nature can flourish once more

- Melanie O'Shea

The coastline of West Cornwall is wild and dramatic; a peninsula of moorland peaks punctuated by a patchwork of rugged stone-walled fields rolling down to craggy headlands of granite boulders and soaring cliffs that drop vertiginously into the pounding Atlantic.

It is a landscape sculpted by the extremes of weather and the relentless ocean. Walking the South West Coast Path through this stretch of West Penwith is challenging; if the wind doesn't sweep your breath away, the steep clambering climbs between hidden coves and the staggering views of the iridescent sea and heather-strewn moorland certainly will. But there is something else that makes this path rather special and will stop you in your tracks: the Dartmoor ponies that call these clifftops home.

A mix of heathland and grassland, these clifftops were historically grazed by a mixture of cattle, sheep and ponies, all of which ensured that dense vegetation was kept at bay and grass was tightly grazed, allowing space for wild grasses and flower species to thrive in a vast colourful swathe. As pony carts fell out of use, livestock was moved inland to graze, intensive farming and development became the focus and the cliffs became densely overgrown. Staggeringly, 97% of the UK's species-rich meadows have been lost since the 1930s, while heathlands have seen an 80% decline. Fewer wildflowers resulted in a dramatic loss of the invertebrate population, which in turn meant falling populations of birdlife, reptiles and mammals.

The National Trust is now on target to restore 25,000 hectares of priority habitat, including coastal land, by 2025, and much of this is being achieved by conservation grazing.

EATING FOR ENGLAND