Coastwalk , South West Coast Path

Place → Portscatho

Distance: 6.11 miles
Ascent: 213 metres
Duration: 2 hours 13 minutes

Round the Roseland
« Falmouth | Portloe »

Once over the river at Place, the Coast Path picks up in the woods behind Place House, a chateau-style country house which is open to the public. The house was rebuilt in the nineteenth century on the site of an Elizabethan structure; even if you don't have time to visit Place house, it's well worth stopping to look inside the adjacent St Anthony's church.

Just off St Anthony's Head, with its stumpy lighthouse, we watched what may have been a sea rescue training exercise with a helicopter winch man dangling just above a ship a short distance from the shore. Given today's news of a fire on a factory ship, it's just possible that some of this training was put into practice.

Another of the day's highlights was a brief glimpse of a pair of grey seals just off Porthbeor beach, swimming lazily in the shallow water. From a distance, they looked very like human swimmers bobbing around in the current.

Our intention had been to continue on to Portloe, but we cut the walk short at Portscatho. The latter part of the walk, with its steep climbs over rocky paths, was tiring and we knew we could make it in time for the bus from Portscatho back to St Mawes (and then ferry to Falmouth) if we stopped.