Porthtowan Beach

That mining history runs deep here. The valley behind the beach was once home to Wheal Towan, one of the most prolific copper mines in 18th-century Cornwall, said to have cleared profits of well over £130,000 before it closed around 1826 - and the site, remarkably, of the first underground steam engine ever built, installed in 1785. The mine was reworked from 1872 as West Wheal Lucy, and neighbouring setts including Wheal Ellen, Wheal Lushington and South Wheal Towan continued raising copper ore through the mid-19th century; the ivy-clad ruins of their engine houses can still be picked out in the valley and on the cliffs above the beach today. A little further east, more substantial remains at Wheal Charlotte stand above the coast path on the walk towards Chapel Porth, while Tywarnhayle Mine, which opened in 1826 and had produced almost 87,000 tons of copper ore by the early 1900s, was the scene of one of the district's worst mining disasters when a boiler explosion killed nine men in February 1830. This whole stretch of coast, from Porthtowan through St Agnes to Chapel Porth and beyond, forms part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognising the international importance of Cornish mining technology and its influence on industrial development worldwide.

Just west of the main beach, past a rocky spur at Lushington Cove, stands Porthtowan's best-known natural landmark: the Tobban Horse, a triangular sea stack rising from the water that has watched over this coastline for generations and taken its name, by most accounts, from its distinctive silhouette. The stack changed shape after a landward rockfall in the 1960s, but it remains a striking and easily recognised feature of the view west along the beach, and a popular subject for photographers at sunset. The cliffs themselves are part of the Godrevy Head to St Agnes Heritage Coast, 627 hectares of protected coastline designated in 1986 and now part of the wider Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - built from alternating bands of Devonian slate and sandstone, folded and hardened over hundreds of millions of years, and still actively eroding today, which is why loose rock and occasional cliff falls are worth being alert to anywhere along this coast.

At low tide the beach expands dramatically, exposing rock ledges and gullies at both ends that are excellent for rockpooling - anemones, shore crabs, blennies and the occasional small fish are typical finds among the pools - and revealing a little-known tidal pool tucked into the rocks that is submerged again as the tide rises, a quiet spot favoured by those who know to look for it. The retreating sea also opens up a shoreline walk east towards Chapel Porth, one of the best short low-tide rambles on this part of the coast, though it should only be attempted on a dropping tide and checked against the tide tables, since the return route can be cut off as the water comes back in.

Surfing has shaped Porthtowan every bit as much as mining did in an earlier century. The west-facing bay picks up a good, consistent Atlantic swell and, thanks to the sandbanks that build up across the bay, throws up well-shaped, curling waves across a wide range of conditions - enough to hold the interest of experienced surfers while still being forgiving enough, on smaller days, for improvers and confident beginners. Surf hire and lessons are available on the beach when conditions allow, and Porthtowan is regularly ranked among north Cornwall's better all-round surf beaches alongside its neighbours at Chapel Porth and Perranporth. RNLI lifeguards patrol the main bathing area through the season, broadly from the start of May to the last weekend of September (with additional cover over the Easter and October half-term holidays), with red-and-yellow flags marking the safest zone for swimming and separate areas set aside for surfing and other watersports.