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The Great Britain Guide

Beaches · South West England

Porthcurno

Also known as: Porthcurno Beach

Free admission

Porthcurno is a beach in the United Kingdom.

Porthcurno, beaches in South West England

Wikimedia Commons contributors — see linked file page for photographer and licence licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
1 h–3 h
Best time of year
Summer (Jun–Aug)
  • Free entry
  • Family-friendly
  • Dog-friendly

About

Porthcurno is a named beach on the United Kingdom coastline. Also known as: Porthcurno Beach. Coordinates: 50.0428°, -5.6504°. This entry is part of The Great Britain Guide, a free, ad-free, open-data tourist directory.

Photo gallery

Protected designations

  • Site of Special Scientific Interest: Treen Cliff SSSI
  • Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Cornwall

Designations sourced from Natural England open data under OGL v3.

From the Wikipedia article

Porthcurno (Cornish: Porthkornow, meaning "pinnacle cove", see below) is a small village covering a small valley and beach on the south coast of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in a civil and an ecclesiastical parish, both named St Levan, which comprise Porthcurno, diminutive St Levan itself, Trethewey and Treen. It is centred 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of the railway, market, and resort town of Penzance and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland. Road access is via the north end of the valley along a long cul-de-sac with short branches off the B3283 and land traditionally associated with the village, including its beach, is on the South West Coast Path.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

Description

Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching from the UK to India, which was then a British colony. Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships' anchors. In 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) Limited was formed which took over the operation of the cables and built a…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
50.0428, -5.6504
District
Cornwall
Parish
St. Levan
Postcode
TR19 6JU
Parliamentary constituency
St Ives
Official site
househttps

Sources

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Nearby

More beaches in this region

Frequently asked questions

Where is Porthcurno?
Porthcurno is in South-West England, United Kingdom (postcode TR19 6JU), in the parish of St. Levan.
Is Porthcurno a protected site?
Yes — Porthcurno is part of the Treen Cliff SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Cornwall National Landscape (AONB).
Is Porthcurno free to visit?
Yes, Porthcurno is free to enter.
How do I get to Porthcurno?
Drivers can navigate to postcode TR19 6JU. It sits within the St Ives parliamentary constituency.