76 Trevone Bay to Padstow

Trevone Bay

Our final walk of this trip is from the delightful Trevone Bay to Padstow. We walk along the back of the beach and then along a rising track towards Roundhole Point. There is a large round hole - we have seen three now in recent days - just inland of the point. It is apparently "a collapsed inland sea cave".

Looking into the mouth of the cove we watched as a young chap positively ran to get into the surf and then paddled himself further and further out. Either he had a very precise idea of what sort of wave he wanted or he kept mistiming his move. We would have loved to see him ride his board but it was not to be.

After the round hole the coast becomes very indented. We were sure this must be the result of slate mining, and certainly former quarries and mines are marked on the OS map.

Just before Gunver Head this rock formation is visible in a gap. I felt that it ought to be called "The pointing finger", but it seems not to have a name.

The next section is along a grassy plateau and Pentire Point and Padstow Bay, effectively the mouth of the Camel Estuary, are clearly visible, as is the Daymark on top of Stepper Point.

The Daymark is a rather pleasing structure. It was possibly built in the early 19th century and was originally whitewashed. Its function of course was to guide mariners entering the Camel Estuary. The unexpected thing about it was the two small gothic style windows on the seaward side

This is the view across the Bay towards Polzeath.

We followed the line of the coast inland and passed a Coastwatch station to descend towards the edge of the estuary. We were staggered by just how wide it was - a massive area of sand is exposed at low tide. The tide was just coming in and the wonderfully named Doom Bar sandbank was still clearly visible in the centre - the safe passage for ships is the wide channel to the left. Now we understood where the Doom Bar beer you see everywhere in North Cornwall got its name.

We walked right round the right hand edge of the estuary (spotting a pristine Brown Argus butterfly by the wayside) and then along dunes behind the sand before turning right at Gin Point and soon coming to the war memorial, high above the estuary.

This is on the edge of the town and the walk through parkland down to the harbour was quite populous. The harbour is in two sections. The larger outer section is fully tidal and at this stage had no water - at this time of day the ferry across to Rock runs from much further downstream. The small and picturesque inner harbour always has water as it is closed off by massive gates. It contains an interesting mixture of fishing vessels and pleasure craft.

Conditions: Quite warm and sunny. Some cloud.

Grading: Easy.

Map: Explorer 106 (Newquay & Padstow).

Distance: 5.6 miles. Distance now covered 463.6 miles.

Rating: Four stars.


Postcript: Prideaux Place

I always bring my copy of Pevsner for Cornwall on these trips, but don't always make much use of it. However, his write up of Prideaux Place, on the northwest corner of the town, was sufficiently enthusiastic to encourage us to make a visit. Pevsner calls it "one of Cornwall's great houses". The house dates from the late 16th century, but was remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries and gradually made to look more gothick, with mock fortifications. This is the very imposing early 19th century south wing.

The house is surrounded by gardens which had become dilapidated but which the present owners, seemingly distant members of the Prideaux family, are progressively restoring. The gardens have a number of touching and very human notices describing plantings and changes.

Beyond the gardens is the deer park, with a large herd of Fallow Deer. There is a lovely view over the park down towards the town (the large building on the right is the Metropole Hotel, where we have been staying, once the Station Hotel).

We didn't go inside as that would have required waiting for the next guided tour, but this was a delightful addition to our walk.

75 Treyarnon Bay to Trevone Bay

It's been raining for about 20 hours since we reached Treyarnon Bay yesterday. The forecast for today is encouraging, but as we set off again it is grey and drizzling. Passing round Treyarnon Point we reach the vast expanse of the lovely Constantine Bay and walk its full length along the softish sand. Above is the rather hazy view back.

At the end you climb a few steps and pass into Boobys Bay. This is more rocky and the path follows the grassy area to the back of the beach. Inland there are a few scattered houses and we especially liked this 1930-ish one in the style of Edward Lutyens.

We plodded on, passing behind Dinas Head to reach Trevose Head, whose white lighthouse we have seen intermittently since Newquay. That its light was on is indicative of the prevailing murk. 

I wanted to see the lighthouse more closely and we followed the road from behind the headland into a sort of courtyard where we were impressed by the pedimented entrance to the lighthouse and the four attached cottages forming a sort of courtyard.

A bit further on we turned a further unnamed headland and the weather miraculously relented - the sun broke through the clouds. We passed this fantastic art deco house above a small bay ...

... and soon reached Mother Ivey's Bay. There was a large holiday park behind the sandy beach. The back of the beach great views back to the newish Padstow lifeboat house and the Merope Rocks. 

We rounded Cataclews Point to reach the simply huge Harlyn Beach.

We followed the path above the beach around the right side and then had to descend and walk the last bit along the sand. In the far right corner a small river enters the bay under a bridge and we reached the road there near to a welcoming pub where a wedding party were celebrating in what was now warm sunshine.

After a refreshing drink we walked around the grassy headland to Trevone Bay, where it was a pleasure to see another of these lovely sandy beaches being used for its true purpose.

Conditions: wet at first, but eventually quite sunny. A high wind throughout.

Grading: Easy.

Map: Explorer 106 (Newquay & Padstow).

Distance: 6.0 miles. Distance now covered 458 miles.

Severity: Moderate.

Rating: Four stars.

74 Mawgan Porth to Treyarnon Bay

We resumed the coast path at Mawganporth, which looked very different at low tide (compare yesterday's views). The shallow sandy beach now looked enormous. It was staggering just how far out the tide went. The view above was taken from the high cliff (75m) on the north side, approaching Trenance Point. 

From just round the point, the straightish section of coast stretched ahead to Park Head.

The next viewpoint was the National Trust owned Carnewas Point: sandy beaches and giant rocks lay ahead.

Once past the first of these rocks, we followed the path down to a viewing platform overlooking the famous Bedruthan Steps.

I wasn't quite clear what expect from the name - perhaps a sort of mini Giant's Causeway. In fact it was a series of rock formations which, with an imaginative leap, could well have been the Giant's Stepping Stones.

We continued along the clifftop passing inland of Park Head and then above High Cove which had clearly been used for slate mining. Just beyond it was a giant hole where a mine had presumably long ago collapsed. It was quite a dramatic sight.

Next up was Porthcothan. This was another of the shallow sandy beaches where the tide goes far out which characterise this part of Cornwall. This one was unusual in that the lifeguard watch point (off to the right of the picture) was so far from the low tide mark that the lifeguards had to use a four-by-four to go travel the  half mile to the waterline change their flags.

We paused for a drink at the café at the back of the beach and set off round the back of beach and up the right hand side. The long-threatened rain was now upon us as the wind strengthened. We hurried along the clifftop overlooking more rocky beaches.

As we approached Treyarnon Bay holiday parks began to appear inland and then we passed this interesting eco house.

Treyarnon Bay, today's destination, looking very inhospitable, was just around the next headland.

Conditions: cool and grey, windy, becoming wet.

Grading: Moderate.

Map: Explorer 104 (Redruth and St Agnes).

Distance: 6.5 miles (distance now covered 452 miles).

Rating: four stars.

73 Newquay to Mawgan Porth

 View across Newquay Bay from Tolcarne Beach

Back on the Coast Path, we set out from Newquay, quickly passing above Tolcarne Beach, with the headland and the Atlantic hotel visible across Newquay Bay. 

A little further on was the wonderfully named Lusty Glaze Cove.

On the cliff road at the back of it a developer was building four rather fine houses. This one put me in mind of the new Whitney Museum we recently saw in New York at the end of the High Line. The house actually seemed more successful to me, although Ange felt that from the side the projecting white room looked more like a portakabin.

At Porth Beach, effectively the final outskirts of Newquay, a narrow bridge linked the mainland to Trevigue Head, once the site of Bronze and Iron Age forts. In the distance, the white column of the Trevose Head lighthouse can just be made out.

The coast now started to become more rocky, with Zacry's Islands just offshore in the middle ground.

Just before Watergate Bay, we enjoyed the unusual sight of a Fulmar hovering just below the cliff edge, but unfortunately my attempt to photograph it was poor. Now Watergate Bay, a major surfing centre, stretched out ahead of us. There were loads of surfers in the sea, but almost none seemed to have found a wave to ride.

We descended to the village and climbed up again past the hotel. Once we were back on the cliff top the view back along the coast was very pleasing.

Now the coast seemed to become a bit wilder and at Griffin Point there was a steady descent and climb to round Beacon Cove.

We saw a new type of Cornish hedge - this one had slates laid on their sides, rather than the more usual stones laid horizontally. 

We finished up at Mawganporth, another narrow cove with a deep sandy beach. Unusually, the main development (Trenance) was not directly behind the beach but up on the hill to one side.This was the view looking into the cove.

And this was the view looking out towards its mouth.

Conditions: cloudy at first, then quite sunny. A high wind throughout.

Grading: Moderate.

Map: Explorer 106 (Newquay & Padstow).

Distance: 5.8 miles. Distance now covered 444.8 miles.

Severity: Moderate.

Rating: Four stars.

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.