Porthkidney

Another local secret, Porthkidney is not on all the maps and there are no signposts to it. You negotiate your way through a golf course and train track to reach it. This cold and dark afternoon, it is just a sliver of sand edging into sand dunes and the sea feels unsettled. A pair of looney dogs adopt me for a few minutes, and we gallop crazily along the shore while we can...

St Ives Harbour

A brief interlude back in Cornwall - and St Ives here gets perhaps the only sunshine in Cornwall, as if to reward me for my long journey to get here from England's other side. This is an easily overlooked beach, except by the sunbathing gulls; what few holidaymakeers there are linger inside the harbour by the shops and cafes, and the only other access is by clambering over some boulders on this side of the harbour when the tide is out.

Polgwidden

Polgwidden sits on the Helford river estuary, at the bottom of Trebah gardens. The cove itself is a break in a coast that is otherwise short of beaches. This is a lush, green part of Cornwall, with a subtropical feel to it. Rhododendrons and magnolias grow to be large trees here, and all the plantings seem exotic, so you emerge onto the beach almost as if on a tropic isle. Except for the crowds enjoying a soft autumnal afternoon...

St Just Pool

There is a gentle footpath from St Just-in-Roseland to St Mawes with access to several (mostly pebbly) beaches along the lovely stretch of water called the Carrick Roads. This is the first one you come to, just past Churchtown Farm. Far far in the distance to the right, Pendennis Castle is sillhouetted on the skyline. The only other beachcomber meanders slowly in the sunshine, engrossed in clumps of seaweed with interesting bits of sealife. Impossible not to exchange smiles as you pass, kindred spirits enjoying today's return of late summer in the best possible way.

Palace Cove

Palace Cove is mostly a low-water beach strewn with boulders, and signs warn you of the dangers from rockfalls. But it's good for idle messing around, sheltered as it is from the full force of the sea; and there are fine grassy knolls just above it with splendid views of the sea and coast, private and friendly - perfect for a picnic stop.

Great Lantic Beach

A blue skies day, today. After a million miles of single-track lanes and a short walk, you hit the coastal path, and breathtaking views of a magnificent coastline bathed in sunshine. Far below, the larger of the two Lantic beaches glistens invitingly, pristine sand against the greens and blues of the surrounding landscape. There are lots of steps down, but here you find a beach worth staying on all day. The rising tide cuts off the smaller coves at one end, but leaves other terraced sections to sunbathe on...

Lansallos Cove

Lansallos is another of those small secret beaches that you might live a lifetime and not find. The sea has sculpted an almost perfect scallop-shell beach out of the surrounding slate rock, and filled it with soft grey sand. All day, clouds hurtle fast across the sky bringing intermittent downpours sprinkled with patchy sunshine; but sitting here it just feels calm and sheltered, and it doesn't seem to matter so much what's happening anywhere else...

Porthilly Cove

Damp brown beech leaves on the grass at home announce the arrival of autumn in Cornwall; the nights begin to close in. From Porthilly beach you can see two popular summer resorts - Padsstow sits to the left across the water while fashionable Rock is just to the right. But today Porthilly beach itself has a sodden, unloved feel about it, and the silvery autumn sun sometimes breaks through the clouds only to suck the colours out of the landscape...

Pentireglaze Haven (east cove)

Nearby, the fashionable Polzeath beach is crowded with surfers today. But walk eastwards along the coast path and you soon come to the two coves of Pentireglaze Haven, strangely quiet and deserted. This is the smaller, unnamed, of the two. The approaches from Polzeath on the cliff-tops give stunning views of this whole stretch of coastline, the strong onshore wind scattering white messy surf all over Hayle Bay. But the breeze is still warm for this time of year and you can just sit for hours on the rocks or the grassy banks, watching the shifting sunlight playing on the waves.

Portloe (East Cove)

You can easily miss this this little beach, as I often have before today. But such a waste! Walk along an inconspicuous footpath east of the harbour and soon you can clamber down some stone steps to reach this cove in a lovely private setting. In contrast to Portloe's harbour cove, I could easily linger here till the rising tide forces me back up...

Portloe: postscript

Here is an example of how light, weather, time of day, personal inclinations and other circumstances all shape the published image, here is one I 'snapped' today, so diffeent from yesterday, as an afterthought...

Portloe

Portloe is a tiny shingly cove that provides a small drying harbour of sorts for local fishing boats. Strong with the smell of the sea, it is usually cluttered with small craft and piles of fish trays and lobster pots. Not a beach for lingering on, but you can walk along the rocky cliffs overlooking the cove on either side. It is easy to find places to sit and enjoy the ridiculous blue that is splashed over all this seascape in the strange September weather that persists, despite today's blustery winds...

Porthleven Sands

Last week's indian summer seems finally to have ended. With today's clouds and the shifting light, walking along this long stretch of sandy beach brings you stunning views and colours each minute. What few walkers you meet soon disappear around some rocks and the whole place feels deserted again. In the distance, the Lizard marks England's southernmost point where, sailing west, you begin really to feel the open sea turn into the Atlantic

Watergate Bay (Revisited)

Watergate was the very first beach of this project, and the only one I have revisited. After a summer of foreign coasts and a series of small rocky coves, I make no apology for this repetition; it is a great joy to walk along the gentle water's edge of this beach again, its tall cliffs still shrouded in last night's mists and its sand seeming to stretch out miles into the haze...

Lundy Bay (East Cove)

Lundy Bay is dotted with a few tiny rocky coves like this one. When the tide is fully out you may get a small patch of wet sand, but otherwise they are just a tumble of rocks. But those in the know come and spread themselves on the warm rocks on sunny days like today. The sea is calm and a ridiculously intense blue. Here, maybe more than anywhere else that I've seen on Cornwall's coast, people will just step off the rocks for a swim, some going even as far as the next cove around the corner. With the crowds gone, this late summer's day has a lazy, languid feel to it, borrowed time that no-one else will miss...

Great Molunan

Sail round the headland south from St. Mawes towards St. Anthony's lighthouse, and this is the beach you come to. Popular with boating families, by land it is reached only after a decent walk and a short scramble down a slate and granite slope. Today, the late summer sun lingers high high overhead in a cloudless sky, even as the afternoon draws on, and one by one the boats reluctantly raise anchor and head for home...

St. Anthony (unnamed cove)

It's already September, and more than 10 weeks since my last Cornish beach! Most of the holiday crowds seem already to have left Cornwall, disappointed with this year's wet and windy season. But here today, we enjoy an Indian summer. Sailboats are dotted all along this coast, some anchored just off several small coves approachable only by sea. This tiny one, reached by a scramble off the coast path, is just below St. Anthony's lighthouse, and completely deserted. Today the lighthouse is asleep in the sun; and standing alone on the rocks and this peaceful bit of sand uncovered by the tide I know for sure that neither the famed Amalfi coast nor the Red Sea resorts have anything to compare with these beaches of home...

Come September

Apologies to all who have continued to look in on this blog. With the coming of summer, circumstances have conspired against beach of the day. I shall resume in September - hope to see you then?

Porthgwidden

It pours with rain again in Cornwall, on and off, all day. Flash flood warnings. But here at Porthgwidden, it stops just as I arrive and stays away for a precious few hours. This is a lovely small family beach. It always seems cosy but never too crowded. Today is the longest day of the year, but the crowds have gone by 6 p.m. leaving the beach to relax gently In the legendary soft light over St. Ives.

Polperro

Today is beset by torrential rains that have come and gone these past few days. I have not seen such rain here before. The hot sunny days of April are a forlorn memory, mocked by the trees high on the hillsides, their frenzied dance to the rhythm of the gales overhead. This little shngle beach appears like magic out of the water for a couple of hours either side of low tide, surrounded by rocky cliffs and high walls. Standing In the brief lulls between bouts of dark rain, you are in the enchanted stillness of Prospero's island, with the tempest raging just beyond the rocks.

Maenporth

Maenporth should be nicer than it is. Stand on the beach and look back, and you see the lush green all around, typical of this part of the coast between Falmouth and Helford. But today the slimy green algae spreads over much of the sand, and in places the water has a slick, black oily look about it. Not a beach to swim in; better to clamber over the rocks at the far end where you can walk out quite far despite the tide and explore the little rockpools, or sit higher up and watch the boats sail across the bay.

Portcuil

Portcuil seems remote, even by the standards of the Roseland. And yet, when you arrive it feels bigger than it is, packed with little dinghies tied up to the shore, and with its own boatyard, sailing school and sailing club. It sits just on the bend of this inlet, with St. Mawes and the sea straight ahead, and the tidal Percuil river to the right. In the gray drizzle, one wet lonely dinghy sails silently in between the moored boats. Drift upriver in a rowboat, and around the next bend you lose almost all signs of civilisation. Hear the cry of the waterfowl, and suddenly the sea and people are a million miles away....

Reflections

Where have the last two weeks gone? A million things always demanding your time. One distraction follows another, and soon the rituals of day to day take over, sweeping you along in its torrent of daily trivia. And the brief moment of the beach is a distant memory...

Booby's Bay

Booby's Bay is right next to Constantine, and today the tide is out so far that the two merge into one long beach by the water's edge. This is the first time this year I see the lifeguards on duty. Their red and yellow flags stream straight out in the brisk Atlantic wind, marking the narrow strip of beach where it is ok to swim today. Their whistles blow when the occasional surfer drifts out of bounds. The Cornish summer has begun...

Daymer Bay

Walk to Daymer along the long sandy beach from Rock, or through the low sand dunes. Here you feel that you begin to approach the open sea. Stand here and think - at last the Atlantic, now just out there; only just round the next headland...

Dennis Cove

Known by the children as "Stony Beach", much of the time you can walk along here skirting the mud flats all the way to the outskirts of Padstow proper. But at high water, as now, it becomes a string of places along the coast path where you can get down to the water: each one the merest stony edge of foreshore. From Dennis Cove you look out onto the Camel estuary, now a flat expanse of shallow water dotted with little boats, and watch the 'weather' as it changes minute by minute.

Porthbeor

Strong winds off the sea make it unexpectedly chilly in spite of the sun, and the sand scours away at your exposed parts. It's almost high water, but when you stand at the water's edge the occasional wave still rises up wildly close to shore, as if alive, to swallow you into the churning surf...

Restronguet Weir

The most pleasant way to experience this beach is to sail up the sheltered waters of the Carrick Roads to Mylor creek and moor up at the famous Pandora Inn, and from there (after a fine lunch and a pint of beer) stroll the short way along the coastal path to this small gravelly patch. Otherwise, the roadmaps and signs are not helpful - for this is a local beach with the feel of a small neighbourhood park, where waterside residents come to walk their dogs and chat briefly, or launch their little dinghies, or watch their kids dissipating excess energy in the cold water.
The afternoon turns a chill gray. Many come and go, nod and smile in passing. None stay for very long.

Summerleaze

On North Cornwall's rugged coast, Summerleaze and the other beaches around Bude provide a welcome haven for surfers and other beachlovers. Today, the chill wind coming in off the sea whips the shallow waves into a messy surf. No fun to stop and linger - you enjoy the beach more as you stay on the move...

St. Ives Harbour (outside)

Today the low light clouds drift continually across the undulating plateau that is the Cornwall peninsula, making the sea here in St. Ives change minute by minute from sunny turquoise to more muted shades of green. In the shelter of the harbour, the sunseekers share the sand with the beached boats. But if you explore the tiny lanes just to the left of the massive harbour wall, you can find a ramp down to where the low tide exposes a sliver of sand with a glorious view of a misty Porthminster beach across the water. Two laughing girls stop only long enough to cool their feet in the still-cold water, then go on their way...

Place

The best thing about this beach is the getting there and back. It is surrounded by private land, and there is no public way to get to it except by boat. Just a small patch of sand exposed by the tide and covered with seaweed. Still, it is in this sheltered area that the heavily protected Falmouth oysters are by law only caught by hand from the traditional Falmouth working boats, their beautiful gaff sails always a treat to see. So I guess I should not complain too much. And rowing the little dinghy in the sun, dodging between the moored St. Mawes sailing boats, is more fun than exercise.

Little Perhaver

I come in search of Great Perhaver beach but find this instead, and stay. So unexpected; so often have I stood just a few metres away, unaware. Today, I walk the few extra feet around the rocks and here it is. The impossibly blue sky with just the merest streaks of pale watercolour white brings out the summer crowds to enjoy Gorran Haven, while just around the corner Little Perhaver waits quiet in the sun...

Polstreath

Polstreath is another of Cornwall's hidden beaches - unless you are aiming for it, you are unikely to ever just come across it. You descend the steep cliffs down the metal stairs, and in the rain you could almost be on a lost prehistoric beach, even if Mevagissey is just around the corner - a jurassic park come true. Today I am the first, the only one to venture out into the gray rain that hangs in the air, the kind of dirizzle that leeches all the colours from the landscape except for the rich, fluorescent greens that cover these steep cliffs. The traces in the sand are mine alone - yesterday has been wiped clean in the overnight high water that washes over this beach...

Porthmeor

The soft gentle light disappears even as I approach the beach, giving way to something more sombre. In summer this beach is usually packed, but t he rain comes down heavily and most visitors are taking shelter in the Tate, which sits magisterially just above.

Mevagissey

Just a little bit of sand and shingle outside to the right of the inner harbour, and only when the tide is out. But still enough in today's cold blustery wind for three little kids and their mum and dad to enjoy a few hours of fun with their ball, bucket and spade. They leave behind only a small castle rampart and footprints dancing in the sand.

Penhale Sands

For reasons unclear to me, Penhale Sands appears to be "blue flagged" as a separate beach, but it's really a continuation of Perranporth - Penhale is backed by imposingly high and deep dunes, and not easily reached except via the former. Between them they stretch out along some two and a half miles of northern coastline, and as far as I can tell I am the only person on it. This afternoon, the intermittent rains become torrential, and in seconds I am absolutely drenched, completely if somewhat miserably in touch with the elements. But what a marvellously empty view...

Portscatho

This is a minor member of the lovely cluster of Roseland beaches. A small beach just by the even smaller drying harbour, but from here you can look right across the blue of Gerrans Bay and Gull Rock in the distance with Dodman Point beyond it. In a sailboat, these are familiar landamarks on the way from Falmouth to Fowey, a popular local run. The rains have disapeared for the moment, the sea laps gently as the tide comes in and the sun arms your back as you sit on the rocks looking eastward along the coast. Out of the picture, Porthcurnick beach is so nearby on the left you could can walk across to it over the rocks, and Carne just pokes out from the further rocks, with Pendower hidden to its left. Strange that I should find the one momentary bright lull in an otherwise gray day...

Polridmouth

Polridmouth is a magical beach that can be anything you want, because it opens up your imagination. Today I reach it to find a circle of long-skirted women, holding hands and going widdershins in a ritualistic dance. I reassure myself that they are merely rehearsing for some theatre performance, but stay clear anyway grateful that it is noon, not midnight. Still, it feels in keeping with this secret place, which Daphne du Maurier must surely have used as her model for Frenchman's Creek, just as her nearby Menabilly served for Manderlay.
Come here whatever the time or light, and you may find yourself in another world...

Porthminster

Porthminster is surprisingly tucked away on the outskirts of St. Ives. and is easy to pass by without noticing when you are intent on getting to the town proper.
Stand here today in the pouring rain, and you can make out Hayle's miles of golden sand as a long, pale line across the horizon. The sky still seems as gently luminous as anywhere in fabled St. Ives and the colours of sea and sand are just unreal...

Postscript: Treyarnon

When conditions change so swiftly, as happened yesterday at Treyarnon, it is impossible to pick just one moment that captures the memory. However, someone points out that my diary notes and my photo yesterday were somewhat at odds, so although I usually try to avoid setting sun pictures, here is one taken just a few minutes after....

Treyarnon

Treyarnon can seem impossibly far away through narrow winding back roads, but the surfers are out in force, and one even braves the water without a wetsuit. A gloriously sunny day, softening as it approached its end. Lovely to just be here as the light fades, altering minute by minute. Colours are soft and luminous one minute, rich and saturated the next, and then glowing, as the red dying sun occasionally appears from behind the clouds.

Vugga Cove

Vugga Cove is a narrow sandy cove with rocky sides, a sort of appendix to Crantock Beach. It is easily missed by people who, at low water, clamber up and down its rocky sides to get to and from Crantock. which is a pity because It's worth pausing here; where Crantock is all sand and dunes, Vugga is rocks and tide pools when the water is out, with a wonderful view of Crantock, East Pentire and the whole bay. After dusk today a blue purple haze blankets the sky, and Vugga feels far more isolated and lonely than its bigger neighbour ever could.

St. Mawes Castle

From the Castle car park, you can go down a narrow unmarked path, through the heady perfume of wild garlic blossom, down to the shore. This is the first of the string of small beaches along this headland towards St. Just. From here, you can see where the Carrick Roads open out into Falmouth Bay. A hazy day, with a watery sun; the water laps gently along this shore at high water, even if the winds are prone to fluky gusts. St Anthony's lighthouse visible on the left mournfully sounds its distant horn in the lingering haze and mist.

Constantine bay

A surfing beach on the north coast; today you can see why - from time to time, the water seems to just stand up, forming a wall that first leans towards you and then curls as it rushes to shore, stumbling over itself and crashing into surf. Walking along the shoreline, there is something compelling about letting it only just wet your feet...

Bow (or Vault)

The day is filled with mist and drizzle, and Vault Beach seems even more isolated and lonely than usual. It is actually not that far from Goran Haven on the south coast but can be reached only by a good walk along the coast path. Following its long arc along the waterline after high tide, the only tracks in the sand are yours, and the beach has that timeless, prehistoric quality that makes you want to leave your mark - even if only a cairn of stones, a Stonehenge in miniature

Swanpool

It is late with a chill in the air, but the beach comes alive as a young group gather round their impromptu barbeque and the charcoal smoke drifts temptingly across the sands. The last light goes quickly this evening; soon, across the dark water you can just make out the soft glow of Pendennis Castle, and the winking of St. Anthony lighthouse on the left. Deck lights shine brightly on a couple of ships at anchor in Falmouth Bay.

Hawker's Cove

A nice way to approach Hawker's Cove is along the coast path from Padstow, a 30 minute walk. Today the water is almost at its highest, and there is no beach at all for most of the way - and even when you get there, it is only the merest sliver of sand. Sit here on the dunes and watch the sun setting in clear sky and the calm sea begin to ebb. Regretfully I set off and it is only on the long trail back, after sundown, that gentler colours paint the skies and a ring of purple violet haze circles the horizon.

Lower Beach (Padstow)

When the tide is out, the Lower Beach is used by the ferry across to Rock and by other boats taking tourists out for trips. The tarmac'ed path down does not promise much, and you get there to find a small rocky cove that on summer days is busy with people waiting for and getting on and off boats. Today, the mist lingers everywhere, the boats are all moored, and in the quiet it's hard to believe that busy Padstow and Rock are just there, behind the mist...

St. Just-in-Roseland

If you start at the picturesque country church, you can walk down its peaceful gardens to where the sandbar at the bottom has created a tranquil backwater, just off the Carrick Roads. The shingly foreshore is not the nicest of beaches for anything but launching boats and waling on, but the soothing surroundings and the views are always worth a few hours of your time. You leave feeling alive, and glad to be so...

Rock

Rock is on the Camel estuary on the opposite bank to Padstow, and the little ferry that does regular crossings is a pleasant way to enjoy both sides. The long stretches of sand along this estuary make lovely golden beaches fringed by low grassy dunes, perfect for lazing about in the sun. The breeze funnels straight in from the sea, but it is very warm in the welcome shelter of the dunes. Today with the Easter weekend crowds it has a distinctly social air about it, but because it is so so long and spacious you don't get any hemmed-in feeling.

Porthcothan

Porthcothan is a deep, gently shelving sandy cove not far from Padstow. It is family friendly, and there are interesting bits of rocky sides and covelets (?) when the tide is out, when you might have to walk 400 yards or more to get to the water's edge. The tide comes in quite quickly when it returns, and leaves maybe 20 - 30 yards of beach. But you can still enjoy sitting in the low dunes at the back and bask in the remaining sun.

Looe (East)

Looe is a bustling seaside town. Today it is glorious sunshine and t-shirt weather so the East beach - its main (only?) sandy beach - is full of life. Children paddling, lads playing ball on the beach, kites flying, even strange, serious men sweeping the beach with metal detectors - they are all out today along with the rainbow coloured wind breaks and beach shelters. It is Easter week, and holiday season has arrived in Cornwall again. But then, who can blame them...