FOWEY

The estuary town of Fowey, which lies at the mouth of a river of the same name, saw a certain amount of action during the Civil War, when the peninsula surrounding the largely Royalist town was occupied by a Parliamentarian army. King Charles I had a close shave later on the opposite side of the river, when this army came to blows with a Royalist army. Going further back in time, just outside Fowey, near Readymoney Cove, our old friend Henry VIII built a castle in 1536 called St Catherine’s Castle to protect the area from invasion by the French. Visitors can learn more about the town's history at the Fowey Museum.

Back in the 21st century, the town has an upmarket air about it, with its liberal sprinkling of yachts and its elegant, solid old Cornish houses surrounding the harbour and clinging to the wooded slopes behind the town centre. There are a variety of boat trips available during the summer months. The town has long proved a popular base for luminaries such as writers, and more recently television personalities, for example Kenneth Grahame of Wind In The Willows fame, and longtime stalwarts of British daytime TV Richard and Judy.

For a list of events in Fowey, see here.

Live webcam.

Map of the area.

Fowey Harbour from Polruan - geograph.org.uk - 535297. Photo by Tony Atkin, via Wikimedia Commons.

POLKERRIS

Charles Rashleigh rears his head again at Polkerris, with yet another pub named after him, in fact this little hamlet forms part of the Rashleigh Estate, which also includes Menabilly House, which was occupied for a time by the author Daphne du Maurier. Polkerris is a tiny sandy cove on the east coast of St Austell Bay. The fishing industry here dates back to at least the age of the Stuarts, when a building known as the “fish palace” was built here, while at one time the fish cellars in this place were the largest on the South Coast. As with so many such places, smuggling was rife at one time, so much so that the coast around here was patrolled by an outfit named the Preventative Service whose mission was to discourage smuggling. There are a number of watersports available here, such as windsurfing and sailing.

Map of the area.

Polkerris - geograph.org.uk - 412907. Photo by Robin Lucas, via Wikimedia Commons.

CHARLESTOWN

The port of Charlestown has a long history as a trading post, but it was developed into a proper harbour with quays in Georgian times. The original settlement here was called West Polmear, but the present name derives from the local man responsible for this development, Charles Rashleigh. His legacy lives on to this day, including in the name of one of the port’s pubs, The Rashleigh Arms. The main business of the port when the Cornish mining industry was still in full flow was the transport of copper, but this was later replaced by china clay.

The harbour is a Grade II listed harbour. Because its appearance has remained largely unchanged over the years, it has been used in a number of TV and film productions, such as the 1970s series Poldark, and the film The Eagle Has Landed, for which Charlestown and surrounding area was used to depict Alderney. Just to the east of Charlestown is Carlyon Bay, a popular holiday spot, while a bit further to the east again is Par Sands, with a popular caravan park.

Map of the area.

Dock Gate and Cottages, Charlestown, Cornwall - geograph.org.uk - 397081. Photo by Gary Radford, via Wikimedia Commons.

MEVAGISSEY

Mevagissey must have had an interesting smell hanging over it in the late 1800s. It had a power station which ran on pilchard oil, and which was used to provide electricity for the lighthouse and streets. In fact, it is claimed to have been the first town in Britain to have electric street lighting. Perhaps the pilchard smell was washed off using Pear’s soap; the founder of Pear’s Soap, Andrew Pears, was born here in 1768. The town’s name is derived from the names of two saints, Meva and Issey. The town's story is told in Mevagissey Museum.

The town still retains its traditional feel to this day, and still has a thriving fishing industry. It is a popular pitstop for tourists, not least because of its proximity to The Lost Gardens of Heligan, several miles outside the town, one of the many famous gardens in the county of Cornwall. A walk westwards along the South West Coast Path will take you past tiny Portmellon and out to Chapel Point, where the listed Chapel Point House stands proud.  The  house was featured in the Daphne Du Maurier novel The House on the Strand.  Like Mousehole, Mevagissey is charming at Christmas, with festive lights arranged at strategic points around the harbor.

Live streaming webcam view of the harbour.

Map of the area.

Mevagissey. Photo by JK the Unwise, via Wikimedia Commons.

GORRAN HAVEN

I have only been to Gorran Haven once. We set out from Mevagissey on a wonderful walk along the South West coastal path, finishing up in Gorran Haven. We were hoping to find a nice little traditional pub to quench our thirst in, but there was no pub in sight. However, there was a beach cafe which did the job nicely.

The village dates from the 13th century, and there is a lovely, safe sandy beach partly facing onto the ancient harbour wall. Towering over all of this is the majestic Dodman Point, 400 feet high and once an Iron Age fort. This headland, like so many others in Cornwall, has seen more than its fair share of shipwrecks over the years, so much so that in the late 1800s a local clergyman erected a granite cross on it to act as a warning to shipping. Sadly, this did not prevent a number of further maritime tragedies, including the sinking of two warships and a pleasure boat.

Map of the area.

Gorran Haven - geograph.org.uk - 1463761. Photo by Tony Atkin, via Wikimedia Commons.

PORTLOE

There is a famous book written by Mary Wesley in 1984 called “The Camomile Lawn”, which was adapted for TV in 1992. It tells the story of a family gathering together in an idyllilic cliff-top house overlooking the sea just before the outbreak of the Second World War, this beautiful stretch of the Cornish coastline providing the backdrop for all sorts of intrigues and hi-jinx, no doubt fuelled further by “pre-war tension”. The house which featured in the TV adaptation is called Broom Parc, and lies a short distance south of Portloe.  

Portloe is a tiny place nestling in a fold of land behind the familiar Cornish sight of a minuscule harbour with its clutch of many-coloured boats hauled up on the beach. Backing onto the beach is an upmarket hotel called The Lugger, and there is a pub up the hill leading out from the harbour towards the outskirts of the village. Beyond that there’s not much to do here apart from marvel at the majestic coastal scenery adjoing the village, and maybe take a walk along the ever-present South-West coastal path which, if heading in an easterly direction, takes you past a derelict 1950s coastguard cottage.

Map of the area.

Portloe (St Gweep) - geograph.org.uk - 470098. Photo by Nicholas Mutton, via Wikimedia Commons.

PORTSCATHO

Such is the complexity of the coastline in this part of Cornwall that the Roseland Peninsula is divided by yet another river, the Percuil River, giving it the appearance of a knobbly cloven hoof. St Mawes lies at its mouth, so to get to my next port of call, Portscatho, you have to drive up the west side of the peninsula before hopping across to the eastern flank of Roseland. For walkers tackling the South-West Coastal Path there is a ferry linking St Mawes to St Anthony on the opposite side of the river mouth.

Portscatho is a cheery-looking little seaside village, with plenty of whitewash on the houses surrounding the harbour to reflect the sun when it deigns to show its face. Pilchard fishing was the economic mainstay in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the village housed a large fishing fleet for this purpose, but that has now given way to tourism, and most of the boats hauled up on the little sandy beach are now pleasure craft. The view over the harbour from the high grassy banks above, with Gerrans Bay and Nare Head stretching into the distance, provides a nice photo opportunity for amateur snappers.

Map of the area.

Beach at Portscatho - geograh.org.uk - 561805. Photo by Trevor Rickard, via Wikimedia Commons.