Coverack – Helford Passage

11 June 2025

Distance on Coast Path: 17.0km; ascent: 280m

Total distance: 17.8km; ascent: 345m

Walking time: 4h 18′

Total time: 5h 47′

Overnight: Self-catering, Falmouth

Logistics: To start: 36 bus Helston – Coverack. Finish: 35 bus Helford Passage Turn – Falmouth

Two older men with the nut-brown skin of seasoned outdoorsmen got off the bus at the Coverack car park at the same time as me. We exchanged greetings and established we were all heading for Helford. I set off before them on the gentle climb onto the cliffs but a few minutes later they overtook me at a fast pace and disappeared. I didn’t see them again.

After gaining a little height the Path immediately drops again to sea level and continues along a flat littoral which is the site of a second-century Romano-British salt works. Explanatory boards outline the process, and also how the unusual beach system was formed.

The littoral outside Coverack

Staying at sea level the Path passes between a large quarry and the shoreline. The quarry is modern, with concrete structures, safety fencing and warning signs but not currently operational. At the next cove, Godrevy Cove, the Path is forced inland to avoid a second quarry on Manacle Point. It then drops into the hamlet of Porthousestock before heading inland again across fields and along farm tracks and roads to reach the next hamlet of Porthallow.

The half-way monument

Porthallow! Why single out this tiny place from all the other little fishing coves along the coast? Because, dear reader, it is the Official Halfway Point of the South West Coast Path! Reaching it is a glass half full, half empty moment. Coming from Minehead it means you’ve walked half the 630 miles of the Coast Path! But then you’ve only walked half; you’ve still got the same distance to do before you reach the end in Poole, Dorset.

“Porthallow has a pub, toilets and seasonal refreshments”, says the guidebook, so I’d planned on a taking a short snack break at this important spot. But the pub was closed, I didn’t need the toilets, and the only sign of seasonal refreshments was a notice directing potential customers back up the hill they’d just walked down to The Fat Apple farm café which they’d passed ten minutes before. No chance!

But I did want a photo. A young woman who had been looking at the monument left just as I arrived but while I paused for a drink and a piece of malt loaf a couple arrived and stood by the monument. They accepted my offer to take a picture of the two of them and in return they took one of me. They set off again almost immediately; I followed a few minutes later.

While I was planning today’s walk my route-setting apps were determined to lead me away from Nare Head where the coastline turns west at the entrance to the Helford River estuary. It turned out there was a problem – a bridge over a stream below Lestowder had collapsed and the Coast Path was diverted. So after fighting my way through more overgrowth as far as Nare Cove I turned inland and followed footpaths to rejoin the Coast Path just before Gillan and the next excitement of the day.

The Gillan Creek flows into the Helford estuary not far from Helford village. If the tide is high an occasional ferry may be available, otherwise walkers have to take a diversion of about three kilometres to a bridge followed by a road walk back on the far side. But at low tide (the guidebook says) it’s possible to cross the Creek on foot. Checking the tide tables earlier that morning I saw I was in luck and I’d be at the crossing right at low water or just after. There are apparently stepping stones but they’re not recommended because they’re too slippery, and anyway I didn’t see them.

The directions to the best crossing point aren’t clear, but the path I was following out of Gillan village petered out on the foreshore of the creek. The church of St Anthony on the far side is roughly the point to aim for. Looking across I saw the young woman I’d seen earlier in Porthallow; she waved and indicated it was OK to cross to where she was, about 200 metres away. So it was boots and socks off, footbeds out of boots, boots back on, trousers rolled up, walking poles deployed, and across the sand and shingle to the first braid of the river.

The first part was shallow. I thought I might make the whole crossing without getting water in my boots, but reaching the main channel it was just deep enough to overtop them. Otherwise the crossing went without any problem and I headed for the slipway near the church to dry my feet (yet another use for a Buff) and get my socks and boots back on.

While I was getting ready to set off the couple I’d met at the Porthallow monument appeared on the far bank, paused for a few minutes, then crossed. Reaching me, they were curious how I’d got ahead of them. They had kept to the Coast Path and I had leapfrogged them when I took the inland diversion. Of course, they found the broken bridge had been replaced so my diversion wasn’t necessary. I came across them again a little while later having lunch on a bench overlooking the Helford estuary.

From there it was only about four kilometres to Helford village and the unavoidable ferry to Helford Passage across the estuary – unavoidable because there are no footpaths following the estuary to the nearest crossing at Gweek, nor on the far side where even longer diversions would be needed to cross two more inlets: all of this would have to be walked on roads.

The ferry works ‘on demand’ from its base on the far bank by the Ferryboat Inn. To summon it you open a large folded iron signal on a fixed pole to show a bright orange disk. Joined once more by the Porthallow couple, another couple and two cyclists we opened up the disk and watched as the little ferry set off towards us across the water.

The ferry arrives!

The crossing only takes a few minutes. My Coast Path friends of the day were staying in Helford Passage (and complaining about the cost!), while I had a walk of nearly a kilometre uphill to get the bus to my new base in Falmouth. I reached the turn with ten minutes to spare, or so I thought, but no bus arrived. Checking the timetable yet again I found that the online version and the one on the bus stop disagreed: if there had been a bus it would have gone about ten minutes before I arrived. I had no option but to wait an hour for the next one, but did eventually get to my AirBnB around 5.30.