Bedruthan Steps & Carnewas – Cornwall’s Great Sea Stacks

VISITING BEDRUTHAN STEPS

Bedruthan Steps is one of the most spectacular sights on the Cornish coast – a line of great rock stacks rising from a long sandy beach below high, wildflower-covered cliffs. It lies on the North Cornwall coast in the parish of St Eval, between Mawgan Porth and Porthcothan, about seven miles north of Newquay and eight miles from Padstow.

The best views are from Carnewas, the clifftop above the southern end of the beach, cared for by the National Trust. From the car park, a short, level path leads to a viewpoint looking straight along the line of stacks to Park Head, and the South West Coast Path runs along the cliffs in both directions.

Please note: there is currently no access to Bedruthan beach. The steps down the cliff have been closed since a rock fall in 2019, followed by a further cliff fall in 2021, and there is no safe alternative route. The stacks are best enjoyed from the clifftop – and the view is the reason most people come.

At Carnewas there is a National Trust car park and shop, toilets, and a popular tea-room and garden in the old mine buildings. For somewhere to stay nearby, see Mawgan Porth holiday cottages and holiday cottages around Constantine Bay and Porthcothan.

Best Time to Visit Bedruthan Steps

Bedruthan is magnificent at any time of year. Late spring and early summer bring sea pinks, squill and other wildflowers to the clifftops, and low tide shows the full sweep of sand around the stacks. On a sunny day the sea below turns a brilliant turquoise.

Evenings are lovely for sunsets along the coast, and in winter the Atlantic swell breaks over the stacks in spectacular fashion. The clifftop paths are open from dawn to dusk all year; the tea-room and shop have shorter hours in winter.

THE SEA STACKS

The stacks of Bedruthan Steps are pillars of slate and sandstone left standing as the sea wore away the softer rock of the cliffs around them. The rocks here belong to the Bedruthan Formation, a series of sandstones, siltstones and mudstones around 380 million years old.

Each stack has its own name. From north to south they are Queen Bess, Samaritan Island, Redcove Island, Pendarves Island and Carnewas Island, with Diggory’s Island further north towards Park Head. Queen Bess Rock was said to look like Queen Elizabeth I in her ruff and skirts – but the “head” was lost to a storm in 1981. Samaritan Island takes its name from the ship Samaritan, wrecked here in October 1846.

Seals can sometimes be seen on the rocks below, and the cliffs are home to seabirds, including fulmars. In spring and summer, the clifftop turf is full of wildflowers.

BEDRUTHAN BEACH & THE STEPS

The name Bedruthan Steps may first have belonged not to the stacks but to the steep stairways cut into the cliff, which for generations were the only way down to the beach. A writer in 1910 described rough flights of steps “ancient beyond knowledge”, with crazy iron and timber handrails. Landslides destroyed the old routes in the 1960s and early 1970s, and a new staircase was opened in 1975.

In November 2019 a significant rock fall damaged that staircase, and a further cliff fall above the beach followed in January 2021. The steps remain closed while experts assess whether access can ever be safely reinstated, and there is no other safe route to the beach.

Bedruthan beach is not owned by the National Trust. It is a dangerous place even at the best of times, with rip currents, fast tides that cut off the coves between the stacks, and loose cliffs – swimming here has always been unsafe. The RNLI, the Coastguard and the National Trust all ask visitors not to try to reach the beach by other routes.

No beach access: the steps to Bedruthan beach are closed following cliff falls. Please don’t try to climb down. If you see someone in difficulty on the beach or cliffs, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.

CARNEWAS: VIEWPOINT, TEA-ROOM & SHOP

Most visitors start at the National Trust car park at Carnewas, just off the B3276. From here a short path leads out to the clifftop and the coast path, and on down a flight of stone steps to a paved viewing area above the old beach steps, with a superb view along the stacks.

There is a level path with a natural surface from the car park to a clifftop viewpoint, suitable for many wheelchair users and pushchairs, and there are Blue Badge parking bays close by.

The National Trust shop and the Carnewas Tea-room stand in buildings left from Carnewas’ mining past, when iron, copper and lead were worked in the cliffs. The tea-room (run by a tenant, not by the National Trust) is well known for its cream teas and light lunches, served indoors or in the garden with views of the sea. There is a picnic area by the shop, too.

• Carnewas at Bedruthan – National Trust

HISTORY & LEGENDS

The name Bedruthan is old – it is recorded as Bodruthyn in 1335, usually explained as “Ruthyn’s dwelling”. The famous story that the stacks were stepping stones for a giant called Bedruthan is much younger: it seems to have been invented in Victorian times to entertain the visitors who came out from Newquay by carriage.

People have lived on this coast for thousands of years. Iron Age promontory forts stand on headlands nearby, including Park Head, and there are Bronze Age burial mounds on the clifftops. In the 19th century the cliffs at Carnewas were mined for iron, copper and lead, and the buildings that now house the shop and tea-room date from those days.

The coast has seen many wrecks. In October 1846 the Samaritan struck the stack that now bears her name, with the loss of nine lives. Her cargo of fine cloth and food washed ashore, to the delight of the local people, and a rhyme of the time said that thanks to the wreck no poor soul would want for a shilling.

As Newquay grew into a resort in the Victorian era, Bedruthan became one of its favourite excursions, and local farmers charged tolls for the carriages crossing their land. Today the clifftops at Carnewas are cared for by the National Trust.

PLACES NEAR BEDRUTHAN STEPS

• Mawgan Porth – a sandy surf beach about two miles south.
• Porthcothan – a sandy bay split by a stream, a short way north.
• Treyarnon Bay – a sandy cove with a natural tidal pool.
• Constantine Bay and Harlyn Bay – beaches around Trevose Head.
• Newquay – Cornwall’s surfing capital, about seven miles south.
• Padstow – the harbour town on the Camel Estuary.