Our recommendations for days out and places to eat in Devon and Cornwall within a 30 mile radius of the old station
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Boscastle
29 Miles
PL35
Boscastle is more than just a harbour village. Explore upstream to reach the Valency Valley with woodland walks. Rugged Cornish cliffs line the route to Willapark and Forrabury Stitches. Venture further north to find geological formations at Crackington haven and the steep-sided Dizzard Wood.
Harbour and quayside
The Elizabethan quay sits in a natural amphitheatre of steep cliffs and is home to stone cottages, shops and tea-rooms. The cliffs rise up around the river as it leads out to sea. Wander down to the harbour passing lime kilns and the blacksmith’s forge.
Blow hole walk further to Penally Point to see Boscastle’s blow-hole which is often called the Devil’s Bellows. It can be seen thumping and snorting about an hour either side of low tide, blowing a horizontal waterspout halfway across the harbour entrance if the conditions are right.
Dog friendly
Crackington Haven
29 miles
Crackington Haven is popular with tourists, walkers, and geology students. The surrounding cliffs are well known for their visible folded sedimentary rock formations. The village gives its name to the Crackington Formation, a sequence.
The village has two café-style tea rooms, and a pub called the Coombe Barton Inn in a building that was originally the house of a local slate quarry manager.
Crackington Haven has a stony foreshore but a sandy beach is revealed at low water. There are toilet facilities near the beach and lifeguard cover in the summer.
Immediately north of the beach is Pencarrow Point and a few hundred yards south is Cambeak headland (between Tremoutha Haven and Cam Strand); the clifftop here is 328 ft. One mile south of Crackington Haven, High Cliff rises to 735 feet (224 m). It is Cornwall’s highest cliff.
Crackington Haven lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park.
Dogs allowed 1 October to 14th May and before 10 am or after 6pm at all other times.
Charlestown
30 miles
Located about a mile outside the town of St Austell is an amazingly pristine, unspoiled example of a late Georgian working port. It was constructed between 1791 and 1801 by Charles Rashleigh, entrepreneur and member of the local landowning family, in response to the growth of the growth of the local mining industry. Originally built to export copper and import coal, it was soon being used for the export of china clay. It is from its creator that the the port gets its name.
Charlestown was formerly known as West Polmear with a population of 9 and a small fishing fleet that used the beach as a harbour. The project began with the construction of the pier to provide shelter for the fishing fleet and then the creation of a basin, cut out of the bedrock to allow the sailing ships in. The roads were widened and paved to allow for the wagons, which carried the cargo to and from the harbour.
Upon completion, Charlestown was a model Georgian “new town”. By the 19th Century various associated businesses were established in sheds and warehouses around the harbour such as pilchard curing, shipbuilding, brick making and lime burning, and the population exploded to close on 3,000.
Many attractive period properties sprung up in the village, ranging from elegant Georgian houses to squat fisherman’s cottages.
To this day the port remains unspoiled and retains much of its Georgian character. This unique combination has lead to Charlestown being a popular location for films and TV locations including Poldark, Hornblower, Mansfield Park and to some extent this has probably helped subsidise its existence and prevent development.
As well as being a harbour location Charlestown capitalises on it’s past by harbouring a fleet of square riggers ships. There are usually at least one of these magnificent ships in the harbour and they really do transport you into a bygone era.
Also worthy of mention is theShipwreck museum located in one of the old China Clay buildings, the centre contains a number of exhibits relating to Charlestown’s maritime past along with more general shipwreck salvage from Cornwall’s coast.
