Snapped today at Morwenstow in north Cornwall. 
Are these orchids common in Cornwall?
Ron
It looks like a lupine!
Wow, that’s really something. Very lovely blooms and photo. And no mention of the Cretaceous, or whatever that word is! 
JUST KIDDING! I love the Cretaceous. Or was it the Carboniferous?
Nice one, Steve. I agree with Cran that it looks a lot like a lupine. Is it related?
djm
It’s real nice.
Looks like a lupin??!! 
Orchids are monocotyledons and are a large and very distinct family. Lupins are unrelated, being dicotyledons and members of the pea and bean family (look at their flowers close up).
The Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) is unusual in the UK as it’s one of only a few orchids that are relatively common. They’re quite common in Cornwall but you wouldn’t say they were abundant. I found another clump today but I need to sort my photos out…
BTW one of its features (though not unique) is the large black blobs on the leaves, which you can see on the pic.
No, it looks like a lupine. 
This is a lupine:
They are out here as well. We have quite a few of them, last year there were several on the roadside opposite my house (until the neighbour drove his tractor over them that is). There’s an abundance of orchids in the Burren, mixed with the gentians it’s quite a sight actually.
Spreading fertiliser on the land is wreaking havioc with them though.
The Burren limestone pavements are deservedly famous with botanists. I went there once in 1977, but at entirely the wrong season. Now onwards till late June is the time to go. If I’m not mistaken, the gentian there is the rare Spring Gentian, which has flowers of the most heavenly blue of any flower. I know it well from Upper Teesdale in northern England and the Picos de Europa in northern Spain. There are similar habitats in the far north-west of Scotland but on a far more limited scale. Mountain Avens is my all-time desert island plant.
I believe “lupin” to be the correct rendition but I won’t argue that with you. The plant you depict is indeed what we call lupin over here, and a cursory inspection of its flowers will reveal that they look nothing like orchid flowers. And just look at those compound palmate leaves. Nothing like the simple lanceolate orchid leaves.
Lupins?
Gentians:
Lupine is a common US spelling. I may be misinterpreting Cranberry, but I think he means that it is reminiscent of it, rather than claiming it actually is.
You win!
What do you win? Well, you win some more nothing, courtesy of Redwolf!
Steve, that IS a beautiful Orchis Mascula.
Thank you.
Most of the rest of you jokers need to invest in a copy of “Botany in a Day”.
A little population of 'em a few miles from the other ones. Someone has kept the gorse and brambles down in a little area to let the orchids see the light. Good conservation! It was a very windy day and this is as sharp as I could get 'em.
That is most interesting to me. I raise several kinds of orchids. Primarily because I loved them when I was young and everyone told me that I could never raise them. Is this a colder climate orchid? the ones I raise need temperatures between 55F and 85F. I was in the Burren in May 2002 and I did not see any. It was also very cold, very windy and very rainy. I missed so much while I was there. I wish I had studied up a little more before I went. Here our primary wild orchid is a Lady Slipper. There is an area not far from me that has a very nice stand of them and it is being threatened by highway construction.
Ron
It is a colder climate orchid. It’s quite common in Scotland I understand. Orchids (terrestrial ones, that is, not the epiphytic types that grow on tree branches) are unusual in that a significant portion of their life is acted out underground. Orchids have an intimate association with certain soil fungi (a symbiotic relationship). They can often live for several years without producing above-ground parts - leaves and flowers - so you wouldn’t know they were there. I don’t think anyone knows what spurs them to flower in some years but not others but weather conditions could have something to do with it. I feel the same as you about my one and only visit to The Burren, in 1977.
There is just one species of Lady’s Slipper in the UK and it is our rarest plant of all. It is Cypripedium calceolusand a few years ago there was just one plant of it left in the Yorkshire Dales. There is a 24-hour guard on its location during its flowering season. It’s a sad story. In Victorian times it had about 100 locations, but the fashion for rare plant-collecting and changes in farming practices almost extinguished it.
I got this picture a couple days ago.
There are a few varieties of Lady’s Slipper here, but there is one rare species found only in the wetlands of one county in Oklahoma
Farming practices? oh yes, but a lot of plants on this side of the pond have been harvested to extinction or close by greedy wildcrafters not for plant collecting but rather, for herb marketing.
Here’s where I plug a great organization for concerned folks in the western northern hemisphere
http://unitedplantsavers.org/
Members will be able to request Ginseng, Goldenseal and Solomon’s Seal during the free plant give away this coming fall.