Crackington Haven

Crackington Haven is a small sheltered beach that slopes away gently to the sea and is overlooked by towering 400-feet cliffs and jagged rocks. A rock lover’s paradise, a dramatic period of the world’s formation is frozen forever in these spectacular cliffs. The small and narrow sandy cove is approached, by land, down a steep-sided wooded combe which has a few houses, an inn and a village shop at the bottom. Originally a small port that imported coal and limestone and exported slate, this small haven is now a popular beach with locals and visitors alike. Viewed from the sea it is difficult to see how sizeable vessels once landed here to deliver their cargoes of limestone and Welsh coal.

For those of you who do not want to hit the beach, fear not as there are some stunning views to absorb with a little help from Shank’s pony (your feet). Some of the most spectacular coastal scenery can be viewed by walking the cliff-top path from Crackington Haven to Cambeak to the south, but, though impressive, the cliff rock is often loosely packed and care should be taken at all times when close to the cliff edge. Just to the south of Crackington Haven a difficult path (so take care) leads to The Strangles, a remote beach with a rather curious name. Although, at low tide, large patches of sand are revealed among the rocks, the undercurrents here are strong and swimming is always unsafe. During one year alone in the 1820s, some 20 ships were said to have come to grief in this cove.

Above the Strangles is High Cliff, and it justifies this name because it is over 735 feet above the rolling Atlantic ocean (the highest point on the Cornwall coast) and the views back towards Crackington and beyond or south towards Boscastle are to be experienced in the flesh. So dramatic is the scenery that some episodes of the TV series Poldark were filmed around here.

On the coast road a mile and a half south of Crackington Haven is the National Trust’s Trevigue, a working livestock farm, where the wildlife includes badgers, deer, foxes, rabbits, birds of prey, bats and glow worms.