61 Porthscatho to Gorran Haven
At the risk of repeating myself: once again, miles and miles of beautiful coastal landscape, interspersed with some charming fishing villages. And the defence of the realm: yesterday was about protection against a French or German invasion, today the threats from Spain (16th century) and Russia (20th century) are added. But this long walk was very peaceful.
The route, day 61
Up and down all day on the coast path, 16.5 miles/26.7 km and 1,057 metres ascent
Stets auf und ab am Küstenpfad, 26,7 km, 1057 Höhenmetern.
Porthscatho to Nare Head
Pendower beach
View to Nare Head
View back to Pendower beach
Gull Rock
Kiberick Cove
Nare Head Cold War Bunker
In 1964 the Royal Observer Corps installed an underground bunker (the green mound in the photo) from which to monitor nuclear bursts and radioactive fallout. in 1964. It measures five by three metres and sheltered a crew of three for up to three weeks. It was abandoned in 1991. For more, see the National Trust website.
In the Second World War the same site had been a lookout post, where a second bunker (the green-painted concrete) was part of a Starfish decoy site. After the bombing of Coventry in 1940, SF sites (Special Fire, later Starfish) simulated burning towns, so that the German Luftwaffe would drop bombs away from cities and military installations – in this case, Falmouth Docks.
Portloe
East Portholland
On a long coastal walk, you don't have much time for visiting museums, but here we managed to fit one in.
Caerhays Castle
When the last owner of the Trevanion family, who had possessed the estate since the Middle Ages, rebuilt Caerhays from 1808 onwards as a country house in the style of a Norman castle, he ruined himself financially and fled to Paris. Since 1853 Caerhays Castle has been owned by the Williams family, now in the sixth generation.
Caerhays markets itself as a wedding venue: "Imagine saying your vows with waves gently rolling in the background." Here champagne is being served in the old coastguards' lookout hut ("an intimate cliff-top ceremony space with sweeping sea views for up to 40 guests"), and a marriage starts off with a great (or clouded?) outlook.
Dodman Point
Dartmoor ponies graze on Dodman Point
The ponies keep the grass short for conservation purposes.
On the headland was a beacon that warned of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Gorran Haven
Hemmick Beach.
John Sykes was here, 11 June 2025
