72 Holywell to Newquay

Holywell Bay

We resumed the route at the pub in Holywell we ended up at last night and promptly took the wrong path - ending up heading away from the beach rather than towards it. That sounds ridiculous, but the beach is concealed behind a complicated network of large dunes. Once we realised our mistake we took corrective action and soon found the first of a series of waymarks which kept us straight thereafter.

These guided us from the back of the dunes and soon we had a good view of the beach and Carter's Rocks offshore. We also spotted the first Wall butterflies of the year.

Soon we climbed up to a grassy clifftop area with a lovely view back. The beach is noticeably quiet and lacking in amenities. We suspect it may be owned by the MOD whose training camp dominates nearby Penhale Point. 

Easy walking, a relief after the soft sand of the dunes, brought us round Kelsey Head to the wonderfully named Porth Joke, a long shallow cove of golden sand. The tide was out and suddenly there were lots of people on the coast path and on the exposed sand - then we noticed the car park half a mile inland.

The path follows the outsides of the cove. Although it might have been tempting to just walk across the sand there was no visible way up on the other side. Anyway, it would have violated the ethos of walking the coast path!

The clifftop path continued around Pentire Point West to reveal the massive sandy Crantock Beach, with Pentire visible in the far left corner.

 We carried on round the edge, passing a colony of Kittiwakes nesting on the cliff face.

Passing behind more dunes and crossing a car park brought us onto a track leading down to the Gannel, which flows out of the back of the beach. It is a quite shallow, but wide, tidal river. There is a ferry but it is not yet open, and at Penpol there is a foot crossing available only within three hours either side of low water. We were delighted that we were within that magic window as the next crossing point adds about three miles to the route.  As we approached the foot crossing it became clear that a wide loop around was necessary to negotiate a creek of the river.

This we duly followed and then headed across a wide expanse of sand to cross the little walkway you can see in the picture above.

You then walk through the streets of Pentire to find yourself at one end of Fistral Beach, home of the National Surfing Centre. The massive Headland Hotel can be seen at the far end.The waves were clearly not good, as there were very few people in the sea.

We took a pause here to enjoy an excellent lunch at Rick Stein's newly opened fish and chip shop. Afterwards we walked up to Towan Head and unnecessarily as we realised once we looked at the map, walked right to the very tip, marked by a small open hut with a gothic doorway.

We headed on into Newquay passing the wonderful Huer's Hut by the wayside. This was where a watchman kept a look for shoals of pilchards and urgently signalled to the fisherman in the nearby harbour when he spotted some. The chimney and external staircase are apparently 15th century and the overall effect is rather like a small church of the kind you find in Greece.

A bit further on we descended to view Newquay's small harbour. The beaches can seen in the background. The tide is fairly full now.

It remained only to walk through the fairly ordinary town.

Conditions: sunny and mild.

Grading: Moderate.

Map: Explorer 104 (Redruth and St Agnes).

Distance: 8.1 miles (distance traveled now 439.8 miles).

Rating: four stars.

71 Chapel Porth to Holywell

Chapel Porth

We set out from the delightful cove at Chapel Porth and headed uphill. The forecast had been bad, but the sky was pretty clear and there was a great view back towards Godrevy lighthouse and St Ives, with a little sandy cove in the foreground. 

Soon we saw again the tin mining buildings we spotted yesterday. 

As we approached the area of St Agnes Head I attempted one last picture of the massive sweep of coast back to St Ives.

Round the corner from St Agnes Head, Newdowns Head concealed our first destination, Trevaunce Cove. 

This was in fact not very pretty, but we stopped for a restorative drink and then climbed up to the high plateau above. The view back was more appealing.

We descended to Cross Combe, another mining area, and encountered a party who had caught the bus from Perranporth who enquired after the route, having first checked if we had been that way before. We pointed out the acorn symbol and yellow arrows used as direction signs, but they looked a little unprepared. We think the steep climb up from the Combe may have deterred them.

This led to another high level plateau, with Perranporth Airfield inland of us. We saw what looked like air raid shelters and guessed that it probably dated from the Second World War and Wikipedia confirmed that this was right - it was a Spitfire base. It is still in use for gliding and small planes.

Further on I admired some lovely rock formations.

We were now in another former mining area and looking down we seemed to see copper deposits. 

The next phase of the walk was rather depressing: the remnants of mines and quarries abandoned without a care. Cigga Head was especially desolate.

Soon however we approached Perranporth and could admire its two sections of beach split by high dunes because the tide was in.

As we got nearer to the town we were charmed by this structure, which turned out to be the Millenium Sundial.

We had originally intended to finish here, but for various reasons we decided we would continue on to Holywell, four or so miles further on. After a break for refreshments, we headed off across the sand to reach and then climb the high dunes. The view back was wonderful.

The dunes here were both surprisingly high and far-reaching. When we finally reached the other side, the view ahead was simply magnificent.

We now walked along the beach for well over a mile, noting that the stones seemed to become smaller as we progressed.

At the end we climbed up more, higher, dunes and enjoyed a great view back. After Ligger Point, we thought we were nearly there as Penhale Point came into view. But gradually it became clear that we would have to circumnavigate an army training camp before we could reach Holywell. This we duly did.

Conditions: mild and quite bright.

Grading: Moderate.

Map: Explorer 104 (Redruth and St Agnes).

Distance: 11.4 miles (distance traveled now 431.7 miles. Now under 200 miles to go!).

Rating: four stars. A sort of averaging out of the wonderful and the grim.

70 Portreath to Chapel Porth

 Portreath harbour

We resumed the Coast Path by walking inland from the beach and harbour of Portreath to climb up out of the village. The view back shows them both.

Soon there was a diversion inland because of subsidence and we rejoined the Coast Path proper above Gooden Heane Cove.

We were struck by the amount of wild flowers: Celandine, Red Campion, Violet, Bladder Campion, Primroses. Soon there was a classic Coast Path descent and ascent at a seemingly un-named cove ...

 ... and later a fine view ahead over the broom towards St Agnes Head.

As we approached the famous Sally's Bottom, there were fine rock formations and a curious tower on the horizon. 

Sally's Bottom turned out to be a small cove requiring a steep descent from the clifftop at maybe 80 metres to sea level and back up again. The degree of erosion on the far side was striking.

But why Sally's Bottom? It had a very industrial look and a helpful plaque revealed that it was once the site of a bottom mine (presumably under the sea bottom) called Wheal Sally (for some reason many tin mines have women's names). It was plugged in 1998. So it seems like a rather fanciful piece of naming, guaranteed to provoke a snigger.

Earlier we had skirted MOD land and seen a curious round shaped structure. A giant tomato? A massive topiary? Who could say? But once it appeared on the near horizon behind us I thought I could get away with a photo without falling foul of the Official Secrets Act. Godrevy Island can be seen in the distance, with St Ives behind it.

Soon we reached the obelisk viewed earlier. Rather disappointingly it seemed to be merely another mine structure.

The coast towards St Agnes Head stretched out invitingly ahead ...

 ... And after passing through a disused quarry we reached Porthtowan, evidently a surfing centre.

 After a climb out of the village and a short walk along the clifftop we reached Chapel Porth and admired a selection of mining structures on the opposite hillside. It was a pretty cove.

Conditions: mild and quite bright. We were quite relieved as before we left home the forecast had been for heavy rain.

Grading: Moderate.

Map: Explorer 104 (Redruth and St Agnes).

Distance: 5.3 miles (distance traveled now 420.3 miles).

Rating: three and a half stars.

69 Godrevy Point to Portreath

Seals in Mutton Cove near Godrevy Point

We picked up the Coast Path at Godrevy Point and headed on along the high (say 60m) cliffs. We noticed that a section of the cliff edge had a wooden barrier. On it were the words "Please speak only in whispers. Any sudden movement or noise can disturb the seals." Seals? We looked down and there stretched out across the sandy beach of Mutton Cove were maybe 70 Grey Seals.

We have had a few glimpses of Grey Seals at other points on the Coast Path, but to see such a large group was a real joy. They were mostly motionless, but every so often one would move awkwardly across the sand. These two seemed to be engaged in foreplay.

Soon the route entered a new environment: heathland. This is the view looking back over beautiful bright yellow broom towards Navax Point.

The coast gradually becomes more rocky.

But for the time being you continue on a cliff top path, now about 85 m above sea level, with a wide plateau inland. The coast stretches out ahead apparently promising more of the same.

Things change a bit further on with the Crane Islands in the foreground and the Samphire Islands beyond. In between lies a classic Coast Path descent to near sea level followed by a steep climb. You can see the gap in the cliff top on the right of the photo.

By now the rain which had been threatening for a while caught up with us as we made another descent and ascent at Carvannel Downs.

Finally we reached Western Hill overlooking Portreath and made our way down to the car park where we had left the car.

Conditions: not cold, but wet and grey.

Grading: Moderate.

Distance: 7.5 miles (distance now completed 415.0 miles).

Map: Explorer 102 (Land's End) and 104 (Redruth and St Agnes).

Rating: four stars.

68 Hayle to Godrevy Point

We picked up the Coast Path again in Hayle and crossed a bridge to head along the North Quay. Behind us was the rather lovely church of St Elwyn. It dates from 1886-8 and was the work of J D Sedding, the architect of Truro cathedral and of the restoration of St Uny, across the estuary. In front of the church was the delightful Church Hall of 1905, looking like a church itself.  I am describing this rather than presenting a photograph because it was already raining, in sharp contract to the lovely weather yesterday evening.

Once we were clear of the quay we passed through an area of holiday homes, some ramshackle and other quite imposing. This was Hayle Towans, a towan is a sand dune. The rather urban route continued into The Towans and then, more exotically, Mexico Towans.

At the end of Mexico Towans, the path follows the back of the enormous sandy beach through the sand downs, now un-named. It was hard going with constant ups and downs over often quite soft sand. There were numerous parallel paths and it was hard to be sure that you were on the right one - but perhaps it didn't really matter.

As we headed further north we began to notice a nice line in slate waymarks pointing the way ahead over the dunes. The rain had finally stopped so it was possible to take a photo.

After Gwithian Towans, the sandy Godrevy beach stretched out ahead, with various random walkers and kite fliers offered a bit of interest.

At the end of the beach you begin a more conventional section of coastal path which leads round to Godrevy Point. Just off the Point is Godrevy Island which houses a still operational lighthouse of 1858–1859.

At Godrevy Point we called it a day.

Conditions: not cold, but wet and grey.

Grading: Moderate.

Distance: 4.2 miles (distance now completed 407.5 miles).

Map: Explorer 102 (Land's End).

Rating: three and a half stars.

67 St Ives to Hayle

Porthminster Beach, St Ives

It's the start of of our annual progression along the South West Coast Path and we pick up the route by St Ives station, overlooking the beautiful Porthminster Beach. The path runs above the beach and then climbs further towards Porthminster Point. As you progress St Ives harbour opens itself up to view.

Beyond the point lies the equally sandy Carbis Bay.

You descend to just behind the beach and climb again to emerge overlooking Port Kidney Sands at the mouth of the Hayle River.

The path follows the dunes at the back of this vast sandy area and turns inland to follow the estuary. The tower of St Uny's church at Lelant dominates the view. According to Pevsner, Lelant was an important sea port in medieval times. The church is originally Norman, but mainly 15th century with late Victorian renovation by J D Sedding, the architect of Truro Cathedral.

Soon there is a good view across the estuary towards Hayle.

After the church the route becomes more suburban as you pass through new housing developments and then follow the road around the edge of the wide estuary into the town of Hayle. The last couple of miles are a bit boring to be honest.

Conditions: beautiful late afternoon sunshine.

Distance: 6.1 miles (distance now completed 403.3 miles).

Map: Explorer 102 (Land's End).

Grading: Easy.

Rating: three and a half stars.