Day 45 - Portscatho to St. Anthony's Head and a place called Place

On a day that threatened rain, Mags and I got lucky and avoided all but one sharp downpour and enjoyed warm weather for the majority of today's twelve miles.

Starting at Portscatho we headed south westerly along the coast. Initially, you drop down through the village. Portscatho is a very well presented village that sits in another of those forgotten bits of Cornwall that the tourist traffic by-passes on it's way further west.

When the tide is out, there is a bit of a beach to enjoy and the village has a very nice looking pub (The Plume of Feathers) a short walk from it's beach.

As we walked further out of the village, I noticed the Memorial (in the top picture) over-looking the sea, which commemorates all those that lost their lives in the Burma campaign during WWII and have no known grave. It was dedicated on 07th May 1998 by Viscount John Slim OBE. DL. son of Viscount William Slim who led the 14th Army group in Burma.

Two miles of gentle walking follows, passing along the low cliff edges at the edges of wild pasture.

Towan Beach is a small stretch of sand, which appears popular with families. There were people swimming, sun-bathing and children playing happily along the beach. Dogs are allowed on the beach, which may be off putting for some. The picture below is taken from the West end of the beach, looking back towards Portscatho, Nare Head and Dodman Point.

It's another two miles from here to St. Anthony's head, the location of a Artillery Battery built in 1895 - 97 to defend the Fal Estuary and one of the world's largest natural harbours (Carrick Roads).

The officers quarters still exist, but are now National Trust owned holiday lets. But (when COVID-19 doesn't prevent it) you can visit the Ammunition store and the barracks. Today, just the Battery Observation post and bird hide were open!

A steep slope down to the waters edge (close to the Lighthouse) sets you off on the final couple of miles to Place (named after the creek it sits on I believe!).

Mags decided not to risk the steep climb and opted to explore St. Anthony's Head, whilst I hurried onwards.

To be honest, the walk isn't to bad and offers some fantastic views across to Pendennis Head, Falmouth and St. Mawes (with it's castle), but Place itself was a bit of a disappointment! Apart form a few nice views across the creek to isolated cottages (holiday lets) the church and the manor house, there is not much there.

Place does however have a passenger ferry service that goes across to St. Mawes where another ferry can be taken to get across to Falmouth. I am not taking these Ferries as when I started this walk, COVID meant there was no way of telling when they would be running due to the Lockdown restrictions, so the Eastern side of Pendennis head and the Western side of St. Anthony's will be the boundaries of my walk (perhaps I'll come down sometime in the future just to get the ferries!).