Fowey Beaches

Fowey sits at the mouth of its own deep, sheltered estuary on Cornwall's south coast, a working port and sailing town whose beaches, in keeping with the town itself, tend towards the small, characterful and quietly historic rather than the big and obvious. This guide covers four of them, working outward from the town: Readymoney Cove, Fowey's own sandy beach a short walk from the harbourside, overlooked by the Tudor fort of St Catherine's Castle; the quiet, undeveloped twin coves of Coombe Hawne and Little Coombe Hawne a little further along the coast path; wild Polridmouth Cove near Menabilly, with its visible historic shipwreck, a Second World War decoy lake and a genuine, well-documented connection to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca; and, across the estuary mouth, the small beaches of Polruan, a real working harbour village reached by one of Cornwall's most charming short ferry crossings.

The scope of this folder is bounded to the west by Gribbin Head, the headland with its distinctive red-and-white daymark tower that marks the edge of Fowey's own stretch of coast - the beaches beyond it at Polkerris and Par Sands belong to a future St Austell Bay folder rather than this one. Polruan, though on the opposite bank of the estuary, is included here rather than given a folder of its own, since it is reached almost entirely from the Fowey side, via the historic passenger ferry, and shares a single accommodation and visitor identity with the town it faces.

Every page in this folder has a full visitor guide to its beach - parking, facilities, disabled access information, a precise map, nearby things to do and places to stay - researched and kept up to date.