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Porthgwarra beach, Penwith

Tunnel leading down to the cove

Porthgwarra is a small coastal hamlet in Cornwall, UK situated between Land's End and Porthcurno.

A narrow winding lane that leaves the B3283 road at Polgigga terminates at the field car-park at Porthgwarra. The hamlet also has a public convenience, a public telephone and a small shop/cafe, mainly for the benefit of visiting tourists. The South West Coast Path passes through Porthgwarra, approximately 1.5 hours walk from Land's End and 45 minutes from Porthcurno.

The cove and slipway are privately owned, but the public is permitted to quietly enjoy them. Swimming in the cove itself is quite safe, provided that you do not go beyond the headland where there are dangerously strong sea currents.

At the foot of the cove's slipway there is a tunnel to the left that leads upwards - it was dug by miners from St Just to allow access to the beach so that farmers could retrieve seaweed by horse and cart. The seaweed was then used on the land as an excellent fertiliser.

There is another tunnel, leading seawards, which was the fishermen's access to the tidal 'hulleys' built in the rocks to store shellfish. The 'hulleys', which ceased being used about 20 years ago, had wooden floors and topcovers with trapdoors and were used to store the shellfish prior to taking the catch to market once or twice a week.

The rope laid down the beach is used to keep the boats straight in the sea swells during the critical landing period.

• Some of the information above is from the "Porthgwarra Cove Points of Interest" notice (John Chappell 2006) posted on display in the window of Porthgwarra's shop. The notice also says that 20 pence in the RNLI box would be appreciated.

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