Newquay is well known for it’s surfing scene; it’s studded with beaches, starting with Fistral and moving around to Towan, Great Western and Lusty Glaze, and the town itself is filled with surf shops. We visited in the aftermath of a storm, when the red flags were flying and Fistral beach was a mass of swirling foam and spray. Even the surfers weren’t brave enough to risk the churning water and howling wind – it was probably one of the most dramatic seas I’ve ever seen.
We parked at the far end of Fistral beach and walked along the sand to Towan Head, passing the Headland Hotel on the way. The views are lovely and in the storm the foam was whipping over the path like snow – Maggie thought this was a great game and spent ages leaping into the air trying to catch the bubbles! From a sheltered spot on Towan Head we watched gannets fishing in the bay and a cormorant diving in and out of the shallows. It’s amazing that they can survive out there – I could barely stand up in the wind, I’ve no idea how they were managing to fly against it!
If you continue around the headland, you pass the Huer’s Hut, a small white-washed building from which the hue and cry would have been raised for fishermen when the pilchards were in the bay. Passing this brings you to the harbour; we spent a happy half an hour here overlooking Towan beach and watching the surfers catch waves as they bounced off the harbour wall.
After a pasty stop, we headed through the town and down onto Great Western beach. Because of the weather, we had this to ourselves which was lovely, although the storm did mean that we couldn’t walk back towards Towan along the beach as planned (the tide was too high). There are some cool steps cut into the cliff on this beach which lead up to the Victorian Great Western hotel – they’re barred with an iron gate, but it’s quite fun to imagine the Victorians tottering down them in their old fashioned clothes to enjoy the beach as we do today!
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