Porthleven Beaches

Porthleven is a genuinely small folder in this guide, because the working harbour town itself has just two real beaches - but each is distinctive enough to earn a full page of its own. Porthleven Beach lies immediately beyond the harbour wall, in the shadow of Britain's most southerly port, an 1825 feat of engineering that Thomas Telford himself was consulted on. Loe Bar, half a mile south along the coast path, is something else entirely: a wild shingle bar that has quietly sealed off the mouth of the River Cober, creating The Loe, Cornwall's largest natural freshwater lake.

Porthleven Beach, the folder's flagship, is a sandy strand that stretches towards Loe Bar at lower tides, backed by a harbourside famous the world over for the huge Atlantic waves that batter it during winter storms - among Cornwall's most photographed sights, and a serious reef break for experienced surfers only. Loe Bar could not be more different: a remote, National Trust-managed shingle bar with no direct road access, rich in geology, wildlife and history, but genuinely hazardous for swimming - please read its Visitor Information carefully before you go.

Nearby beaches such as Praa Sands and Perranuthnoe, further round Mount's Bay, belong to a different stretch of coast and are not covered in this folder. Each beach below has its own dedicated page with a full visitor guide - parking, facilities, disabled access information, a precise map, nearby things to do and places to stay - researched and kept up to date.