Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PERRANPORTH TO PORTREATH
The craggy coastline between Perran and Portreath was once at the heart of Cornwall's
mining boom. Two centuries ago, this blustery coast would have looked very different:
spoil heaps and belching chimney stacks would have littered the landscape, but now their
moody ruins provide nothing more than a ghostly reminder of Cornwall's past.
This is surfers' and walkers' country nowadays, with a wealth of rocky coves and white
beaches to discover.
Getting There & Away
The most useful local buses:
Bus 85
(hourly Monday to Saturday) Regular bus from Truro to St Agnes.
Bus 304
(hourly Monday to Friday, six on Saturday) Truro to Porthtowan.
Bus 591
(hourly) Newquay, Holywell Bay, Goonhavern and Perranporth.
Bus 594
(hourly) St Agnes to Truro.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Perranporth
East of Newquay, the coast road tracks through craggy scenery all the way to Perranporth,
another breezy beach town blessed with a fabulous 3-mile stretch of sand. The town isn't
much to look at - a sprawl of concrete chalets, holiday villas and clifftop bungalows - but
the beach itself is an absolute stunner, sweeping in a great arc all the way to the grassy
dunes of
Penhale Sands
.
The dune system here is the largest in Cornwall, and buried among them are the remains
of a 6th-century
oratory
, the oldest such structure so far discovered in the county. It's dedic-
ated to St Piran, Cornwall's Celtic saint; a campaign is underway to fund an archaeological
survey and preserve the building for the future. At the southern edge of the beach, a stair-
case leads up the clifftop to Perran's
sundial
, built to commemorate the millennium and
show Cornish time (rather than GMT).
