St Austell Bay Beaches

St Austell Bay curves along Cornwall's south coast between Gribbin Head, near Fowey, and Black Head, near Mevagissey - a stretch shaped as much by industry as by nature. This guide covers eight of its beaches, running west to east: Polkerris, a small, sheltered fishing cove once home to its own lifeboat station; Par Sands, a broad sandy beach at a china-clay river mouth, a stone's throw from the Eden Project; Carlyon Bay, three linked beaches of pale "stent" sand backed by a long-running seafront redevelopment; Charlestown, a beautifully preserved Georgian harbour and one of Britain's best-loved film locations; the quiet, little-known coves of Duporth and Porthpean; the remote, walk-in-only pair of Hallane and Polgwyn beaches below the A. L. Rowse memorial at Black Head; and Pentewan, a historic harbour village whose old china-clay railway is now a level cycling and walking trail to the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

This stretch of coast is often marketed as the "Cornish Riviera", and its story is inseparable from Cornwall's china clay industry - several of these beaches, and the harbours that built them, owe their existence directly to the export of "white gold" from the pits inland. Several beaches here have no accommodation listings of their own and honestly point to the nearest genuine hub - Polkerris to Par, Carlyon Bay, Duporth and Porthpean to St Austell, and Hallane & Polgwyn to Pentewan.

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.