MAENPORTH

Maenporth is an obscure spot on the Cornish coast, at least I’d never heard of it until I started this blog. However, this little-known place was the subject of a poem by Peter Redgrove, a poet who lived in Falmouth during his later years, who in 1967 wrote a poem with the strange title “The Idea of Entropy at Maenporth Beach”, one of a series of “mud-people poems”. So Maenporth has earned its place in the international Hall of Fame! The small but perfectly formed beach here is situated on the stretch of coast between the Helford River and the River Fal, and offers beautiful views of the coast beyond the Fal Estuary. Maenporth was the scene of yet another shipwreck, a Scottish trawler called the Ben Asdale, which ran aground in 1978. However, unlike the other shipwrecks in the area, you won’t have to don a wetsuit and oxygen tank to view this one, because it is still visible from land at low tide. A wetland area behind Maenporth provides the opportunity to view Grey Heron and Little Egret.

Map of the area.

Beach below High Cliff Maenporth - geograph.org.uk - 840100. Photo by Rod Allday, via Wikimedia Commons.