Perranporth Holiday in Cornwall

Photo taken early one Spring

Perranporth holiday-camping to caravan, to touring park to self catering cottage- perfect for that break in Cornwall. A popular Cornwall tourist resort, with several holiday centres nearby.

A hundred and fifty years ago, like so many other Cornish coastal settlements a tin mining area with a seining station, worked by the miners in summer, harvesting the then considerable shoals of herring and pilchard. In fact the shoals were so vast that four seining companies worked the bay, with names such as the Union Seine Company, and the Miners Seine Company.

Old photographs of Perranporth show both the fish cellars and the seine boats dragged onto the head of the beach. Between the months of July and October the pilchard shoals arrival in the bay would be sounded by the huer, a man acting as lookout, positioned on the clifftop, blowing into a trumpet. The huer would then indicate the location of the shoal to the waiting boats by flags.

Within the bay are the remains of numerous shipwrecks. One such vessel that ran aground in March 1901, but was later successfully re-floated, was the steel hulled Voorspoed. All the crew were saved.

Walking along the wide expanse of beach in Perran Bay north towards Penhale Point you may notice adits, horizontal tunnels driven into the cliffs, to drain the water from the nearby tin mines, such as Wheal Vhow. To the west is Droskyn Point, site of the Droskyn Mine, and where the striking Droskyn Sundial, constructed to mark the new Millennium, is situated. Off the Point is the natural arch, perhaps Perranporth most famous landmark, and Chapel Rock. Droskyn Point, on a sunny day, is a nice place to sit and watch the body boarders enjoy the waves. Surfing.

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St Piran Perrans Bay is reputed to be the landing place of St Piran, the patron saint of Cornish Tinners. Who sailed across the Celtic Sea on a granite millstone in the 5th Century, well at least that is how legend tells it. His Oratory is buried within the sand dunes, and should you intend to take a rewarding walk intending to see it, very difficult indeed to find.

Several hundred yards away from the remains of the Oratory, and also within the dunes is St Pirans Cross, also dating from the 5th century . A church used to stand nearby, but this like the Oratory was overwhelmed by sand, not once but twice, the stone being used in the present church dating from 1805 found in the village.

Mention the charming Perranzabuloe Folk Museum

The Cornwall Coast offers nice walks. North beyond Penhale Point are yet more wide expanses of sandy beach. such as Holywell Bay, with the resort of Newquay , with its Surfing beaches, or walk south from Perranporth to St Ives Bay

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Page Updated 2005