Whitsand Bay Beaches

The Rame Peninsula, in the far south-eastern corner of Cornwall, is bordered on its southern side by Whitsand Bay - a four-mile sweep of sand and shingle running beneath high, crumbling cliffs from Portwrinkle in the west almost to Rame Head, before the coast turns north into the sheltered waters of Plymouth Sound. This guide covers seven very different beaches along that stretch and its immediate approach from Looe: the level, easily-accessed village beach at Seaton, the village beach at Downderry, the twin-cove hamlet of Portwrinkle, Tregantle Beach beneath its Victorian fort, the vast open beach of Whitsand Bay itself, the pastel-painted former smuggling villages of Kingsand and Cawsand facing Plymouth across the Sound, and Barn Pool, a historic beach within Mount Edgcumbe Country Park.

Seaton and Downderry, a mile apart and connected by a low-tide walk along the sand, sit at the eastern gateway to this stretch of coast, nearest to Looe - Seaton the more level and accessible of the two, Downderry the larger village with its own long-running battle against coastal erosion. Portwrinkle marks the bay's western end, with its own pilchard-fishing and smuggling past. Tregantle Beach, immediately east of Portwrinkle, has its own full page covering the beach, its Victorian fort and the active military firing range beside it. Whitsand Bay itself is the main event: a huge expanse of sand accessed down steep cliff paths at Tregantle, Sharrow, Freathy and Tregonhawke, hugely popular with surfers and walkers, but with genuinely strong rip currents and lifeguard cover limited to Tregonhawke in season - every page in this folder is honest about where the real hazards lie. Kingsand and Cawsand, further round towards Plymouth, are a different world again: two former fishing and smuggling villages so close together that the historic county boundary between Devon and Cornwall used to run straight through them, with a small, sheltered beach at their meeting point. Barn Pool, tucked inside Mount Edgcumbe Country Park and reached by the historic Cremyll Ferry, closes out the folder with a beach whose history stretches from Viking landings to Charles Darwin's departure aboard HMS Beagle.

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.