Helford Passage – Falmouth

12 June 2025

Distance on Coast Path: 15.7km; ascent: 254m

Total distance: 19.1km; ascent: 328m

Walking time: 4h 17′

Total time: 5h 33′

Overnight: Self-catering, Falmouth

Logistics: To start: 35 bus Falmouth – Helford Passage Turn Finish: walk back

The weather forecast was damp and gloomy for my last day of this section, although possibly drier and brighter in the afternoon. It was overcast in Falmouth with moderate drizzle as I had breakfast, and I had visions of pushing my way through soaking undergrowth and getting wet from above and below. It called for Plan B.

Plan B was to spend the morning walking the section of the Path that goes round Falmouth’s Pendennis Point and through the town centre, then get the bus to Helford Passage and walk from there to Falmouth in the afternoon, hoping the weather would have cleared by then.

Falmouth docks

I chose to walk the ‘wrong’ way from the town to Pendennis Point so had the sea on my left for once. The Path goes above Falmouth’s commercial docks, the most industrial experience of the whole Coast Path so far. A cruise ship docked further towards the town centre showed another side of Falmouth which had changed since the last time I was there some twenty years before.

Rounding the Point (no views) I continued as far as Gyllyngvase Beach before heading back into the centre to catch the bus. There was no confusion with the timetable this time, and I was duly dropped at the Helford Passage turn to walk the short kilometre downhill to the Ferryboat Inn and the ferry landing stage.

Immediately after leaving the harbour the Coast Path crosses two popular gardens, first the privately-owned Trebah and then the National Trust’s Glendurgan. Their main entrances are both on the bus route, which explains the surge of people mostly of retirement age who got on my bus yesterday afternoon. Trebah is remembered for its role in the Second World War: the assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy was launched from Polgwidden Beach at the foot of Trebah Garden [Wikipedia]. While the National Trust’s gardens are open down to the beach and can be accessed from the Coast Path (possibly unofficially – I didn’t check), the private trust that runs Trebah has gone to some trouble and expense to keep out hoi polloi with high wooden fences, a wooden staircase and a bridge preventing grimy walkers from getting to the private beach.

Durgan beach (open to the public)

The weather had improved by now and the rest of the walk was a real pleasure. I walked through open fields, along low cliffs mostly on broad non-overgrown paths, sometimes through shady woodland, all with minimum ups and downs. Enough cloud occasionally passed over to form a slight grey mist but it was mostly sunny with light winds. I rounded Rosemullion Head and sat in the sunshine with a cup of tea and a scone at the café on Maenporth beach.

The Beach House, Swanpool

From Maenporth to Swanpool was even easier – a recently upgraded gravel path wide and smooth enough for buggies and wheelchairs with wider tyres. I took a picture of Swanpool’s Beach House restaurant: I have good memories of it from twenty years ago when it was The Three Mackerel. It looked much the same, though I think it’s been extended a bit.

From Swanpool it’s less than a kilometre to Gyllyngvase Beach where I’d finished earlier. I was glad I’d followed Plan B – it had been a nice walk to finish this section of the path. I treated myself to an expensive steak that evening to celebrate.