Towan Beach

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Towan Beach, near Portscatho, Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, TR2 5EY

Towan Beach sits on the eastern shore of the Roseland Peninsula, a short walk south of the sailing village of Portscatho, and has earned a reputation among visitors and guidebooks alike for a wonderfully remote feel that belies how easy it actually is to reach. There is no direct road down to the sand and no car park at the beach itself, but the walk in from the nearest parking is genuinely short - around five minutes on foot from the National Trust's Porth Farm car park - which makes Towan an unusual combination: a beach that feels properly cut off from the world once you are standing on it, while remaining perfectly manageable for families, dog walkers and anyone not looking for a lengthy coast path expedition. It should not be confused with the better-known Towan Beach in Newquay, on the north coast, which is an entirely different beach covered elsewhere on this site; this Towan Beach belongs firmly to the quieter, more low-key character of the Roseland.

The beach itself is sandy, and its character changes considerably with the tide. At high water the sand narrows to a more modest strip beneath the dunes and low cliffs, but as the tide falls Towan expands substantially, uncovering a broad expanse of firm sand along with rocky outcrops and pools that are well worth a proper look for anyone interested in rockpooling. Low tide is genuinely the best time to visit if exploring is the aim, both for the extra beach it reveals and for the marine life that turns up in the pools among the rocks at the beach's margins - shore crabs, anemones and small fish are typical finds for children and adults alike willing to turn over a few stones carefully and put them back as found.

Access to Towan is via the National Trust's Porth Farm, which serves both this beach and, a little further round the headland towards St Anthony Head, the walk out to Great & Little Molunan. Two car parks are available at Porth Farm, run on a cash-only pay-and-display basis for most visitors (with the option to pay via the JustPark app instead of carrying change), while National Trust members and Blue Badge holders park free. From the car park, a level path leads through farmland and a short stretch of woodland before reaching the top of the beach access point; the final drop onto the sand itself is via a steep, uneven path or a short ramp, and the exact height of the drop from path to beach can vary noticeably with the season as sand levels build up or wash away, so it is worth taking care on the final few steps down, particularly with young children or when carrying beach gear.

A genuinely useful feature of the Porth Farm site, and one that sets Towan apart from several of the Roseland's other small, facility-free coves, is the seasonal tea room run by the site's tenant at the car park. It serves hot and cold drinks, cakes, pasties and ice creams, and toilets - including an accessible toilet - are generally available whenever the tea room itself is open. There is no equivalent at the beach, so anyone planning a full day on the sand should factor in a stop at the car park on the way in or out; outside of the tea room's opening hours, Towan reverts to having no facilities at all, in keeping with the largely undeveloped character of this stretch of coast. Porth Farm remains a working National Trust holding rather than a purpose-built visitor site, and several of its buildings - Porth Farm House, Porth Farm Cottage, Porth Barn and Towan Cottage among them - are let out as National Trust holiday cottages, giving a small number of visitors each year the rare chance to stay within a few minutes' walk of the beach itself.

Beyond the beach, Porth Farm's National Trust land offers a genuinely good network of walking routes. The shortest is the roughly one-mile, all-weather trail around Porth Creek, which takes about forty-five minutes at an easy pace along gravel and compacted-gravel paths with a single zigzag slope; the lower, creekside stretch is built to a standard suitable for more robust wheelchairs and pushchairs, while the upper woodland sections have tree roots underfoot and are better suited to those on foot. Dogs on leads are welcome throughout. The route loops through farmland, meadow and woodland with views across the water to Froe on the far side of the creek, and is a genuinely pleasant option in its own right on a day when the open coast feels too exposed for a comfortable walk. For those wanting more, a longer circular route of around 3.8 miles extends the same farmland and woodland walking into a fuller loop of the immediate coastline, with longer-reaching clifftop views back towards the beach and out across Gerrans Bay.

Longer-distance walkers can pick up the South West Coast Path directly from the beach, which threads along the clifftop in both directions - south-west towards St Anthony Head and the Molunan coves, and north-east towards Portscatho. Anyone walking towards Portscatho, however, should stick to the coast path itself rather than attempting to follow the shoreline at beach level, since the tide can rise quickly enough along this stretch to cut off a walker attempting to stay low. This whole stretch of coast, from Creek Stephen Point in the west round Gerrans Bay to Nare Head and Manare Point near Portloe in the east, including Gull Rock offshore, forms the Gerrans Bay to Camels Cove Site of Special Scientific Interest, a 139.5-hectare designation first notified in 1951 and recognised for both its biological and geological interest. Most of the coastline within it, Towan Beach included, is owned by the National Trust and lies within Cornwall's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which goes some way to explaining why this stretch has kept such an unspoilt, undeveloped feel despite sitting so close to the sailing and holiday traffic of the wider Roseland.

The wider setting adds real appeal beyond the beach itself: this is Gerrans Bay, the broad sweep of water between St Anthony Head and Nare Head, with views out to Gull Rock and a genuinely open sense of sea and sky that is part of what draws people back to the Roseland Peninsula's less-developed eastern beaches. Portscatho, the nearest village a short walk or drive to the north, remains a working sailing and fishing harbour rather than a purpose-built resort, with a small huddle of cottages, a pub and a handful of shops that give it a lived-in, low-key character much like the beach itself. Dogs are allowed at Towan all year round with no seasonal restriction, provided they are kept under close control - a genuine point in the beach's favour for anyone visiting with a dog in high summer, when many of Cornwall's larger resort beaches operate a strict seasonal ban. Taken together - a proper sandy beach, real rockpooling at low tide, a nearby tea room and toilets, a genuinely good choice of waymarked walks, dog-friendly access all year, and a short, easy walk in from the car park - Towan offers a rare balance for the Roseland: genuinely remote in feel, without being genuinely difficult to reach.

Page last updated: 17 September 2026

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