Porthcothan to Newquay

8 May 2024

Distance on Coast Path: 17.4km; ascent: 329m

Total distance: 17.8km; ascent: 339m

Walking time: 4h 15′

Total time: 5h 27′

Overnight: Lyncroft B&B

I bought another pasty this morning, cheese and onion this time, and walked up to the bus stop. It was a rather late start – the bus was due at 9.40. A few more people arrived, all making the same journey. At 9.41 the bus pulled up and I got on first. “I think everyone’s going to Porthcothan”, I said to the driver. “Not on this bus you’re not!”, he replied. D’oh! Wrong bus route. This was a number 11 and we wanted a 56, both due within minutes of each other. Sure enough we’d only just backed out of the bus doors when the 56 turned up. It dropped us all in Porthcothan at 1012.

Porth Mear, a short way into the day’s walk

Porthcothan has a shop! It’s down a gravel lane (also the Coast Path) right by the bus stop; I stopped to restock with a couple of cereal bars and Snickers.

As I’d already planned to have a rest day in Newquay the late start didn’t matter and I had a relatively easy day. The Path followed low level cliffs without much up and down. There were long sandy beaches and sandy coves with black rocks. A little after 1130 I stopped at the café at  Carnewas Point, a National Trust area which is the access point for Bedruthan Steps. The Steps are not steps but a group of sharp black rocks strung along the sandy beach north of Carnewas Point and directly below the settlement of Bedruthan. At the time I passed (May 2024) access to the beach was still blocked by the National Trust after a rockfall in 2019. The Trust had not yet decided on a new safe access route.

Bedruthan Steps from the north

Bedruthan Steps from the south

A little further on I rounded a corner and had my first sight of Trenance, overlooking the bay and beach of Mawgan Porth. It was depressing – on the hillside above the bay was the ugliest new development I had seen so far. I’ve mentioned before that there was new building going on everywhere along the coast, much of it expensive. This though was more reminiscent of the excesses of the Mediterranean resorts from the 80s. I wasn’t close enough to get a good picture: the one below doesn’t really capture how unpleasant and out of place it looked.

New development sprawling above Trenance and Mawgan Porth.

I walked across the beach at Mawgan Porth then rejoined the path along the low cliffs. Just a little further above Beacon Cove I was amazed and delighted to see a peregrine falcon flying only a few feet away just over the edge of the cliff but at my ground level. I stood still without going any closer to the edge. It made several passes along the cliff, not always in sight. I guessed it was either defending its own nest from predatory seabirds, or was itself hunting for eggs or chicks from other nests.

Not long after that I reached the long beach of Watergate. Planes from Newquay airport, a mile or so inland, passed overhead. The last section from the Watergate Hotel half way along the beach was level but small ins-and-outs added to the distance to walk but for no reward. I reached the edge of Newquay’s urban area at a place called Whipsiddery; from there it was a dreary road slog close to or through houses and along busy streets through Newquay centre to my B&B overlooking the golf course above Fistral Beach.

I was happy that there were local facilities and that I didn’t have to go back into the centre of Newquay that evening. The Red Lion was just down the road near the small harbour for a beer, and Graze, a tapas bar over the road from the pub made a pleasant change from pub food.

Rest day in Newquay – notes

9 May 2024

Late-ish breakfast. Sunny and warm. Laundrette. Newquay town centre busy; some nicer shops but mostly touristy with too many ‘Candy Stores’ prompting the thought that money laundering has reached the south-west. Back past Towan Beach, out to Towan Head and the Headland Hotel (memories of long ago), no longer in isolation but now crowded by an outsize new apartment complex which from the rear looked like a Bond supervillain’s lair. Fistral Beach – surfing mecca. Shops, bars and restaurants (including Rick Stein Fish) at the International Surfing Centre. Back across the golf couse to alfresco lunch of cheesy chips and St Miguel at Rosa. Idle afternoon and evening.