Looe Beaches

Looe is a historic fishing port in South East Cornwall, once two separate boroughs - East Looe and West Looe - facing each other across the river before a bridge finally joined them in the fifteenth century. The town was a major centre for British shark angling from the 1950s onwards, and today this guide covers seven genuinely different beaches stretching east from Looe towards Fowey: the sandy, busy town beach at East Looe; the shingle-and-rock shore at Hannafore, with fine views out to Looe Island; the small cove at Millendreath, currently mid-redevelopment; the quiet coves of Talland Bay, Lansallos and Lantic Bay; and, further along the coast, the picture-postcard smugglers' harbour of Polperro.

East Looe Beach is the town's flagship beach - sandy, family-friendly, and right in the heart of Looe, a short walk from the harbour, the Banjo Pier and the historic Old Guildhall Museum. Hannafore trades sand for shingle and rock ledges, but makes up for it with some of the best views in the area across to Looe Island, a Cornwall Wildlife Trust nature reserve where grey seals are regularly seen, plus good rockpooling at low tide. Millendreath is the wild card of the three original beaches: a small cove that has been affected by an ongoing, council-approved redevelopment of the holiday resort around it, so its own page sets out honestly what is and isn't currently accessible.

East along the coast path, Talland Bay is a peaceful sand-and-shingle beach with a smuggling history and the atmospheric church of St Tallanus above it, while Lansallos and Lantic Bay are both reached on foot through National Trust land - secluded, undeveloped, and without the amenities of the town beaches. Polperro is the jewel of this stretch: a car-free fishing village of whitewashed cottages around a tidal harbour, with a genuine smuggling history built around the exploits of Zephaniah Job, "the Smugglers' Banker". Seaton, Downderry, Portwrinkle, Whitsand Bay and Kingsand/Cawsand, further west towards the Rame Peninsula, belong to this guide's separate Whitsand Bay folder and are not covered here. 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.