“Just when we thought the trip was done, we had to deal with 3 extra uphill miles, the Russian Mafia and laundry!”  -Mike (the ex-hiker).

Today was scheduled as an 11 mile day. The guidebook said that today’s route was a gentle walk, but Mike was no longer willing to be gullible about the trail’s challenges! (Hah)  We decided to do another taxi-hop and reduce our last day’s mileage so we could have a more relaxed day, and arrive in Falmouth early enough to do the extra things we wanted to do to prepare for our ongoing travel, which would begin early the next morning.

We started at a beach called Maenporth. 

I’d calculated that our mileage from Maenporth to our hotel in Falmouth would be about five miles.

And wonder of wonders -today turned out to be the easiest day of the week.  We still had some small ups and downs, but the trail was wide and smooth and, in places, even paved!  Mike said he would have walked the whole eleven miles if he’d known for sure that the entire way was as nice as the five miles we walked.

This is the beginning of the trail from Maenporth Beach. 

Looking back at Maenporth Beach.

Another view along the way.

We came around a bend and the Path took us across this small town beach -Swanpool..  On the far side they had some small beach cabanas that (I think) people rented for the day, or season? (to change in…etc).  Each one was painted a different color and had a different “fish” name posted on the door.

Another beach along the way.

Our estimated five miles to the finish line was pretty spot on, but what we didn’t expect was seeing a “Welcome to Falmouth” sign at barely 2.5 miles! 

The beach was named Gyllyngvase (Gylly for short).  It was clearly a suburban beach on Falmouth’s outskirts, with high-rise apartments across the street.  

We could have plotted a course through the city streets at that point and arrived at our hotel even faster, but instead, we walked along a paved beachfront promenade toward a peninsula at the far end. I’d noted the night before that there is a castle on the peninsula, which is the Southern tip of the Falmouth harbor. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tour it, but I did think it might be interesting to get a glimpse of it.

After Gylly, the paved path passed along a more park-like setting for a bit.

 Then we most definitely arrived at Falmouth’s “beach front”.  The promenade was at street level, a bit higher up than the beach.  I was quite interested in this “old” beach access stair way.  There was a double staircase that led down to a small tunnel under the sidewalk and out to the beach.

The castle at Falmouth is named Pendennis Castle. It was constructed by Henry VIII between 1540-1542.   It was used as a defensive fort; its only function was to guard both the anchorage at Falmouth Harbor and repel any invasion threats that might arise from international tensions or wars going on over the years.  It was in operation as recently as WWII.  In 1956, it was decommissioned and then opened to visitors.  

Turns out, the castle is raised up high above a dry moat and you can’t see the castle at all unless you want to pay the entry fee.  Mike was able to catch a photo of it from afar.

We’d walked up to an entry gate, trying to figure out where the coast path was and the ticket-taker kindly took the time to point us in the direction of the moat path, which circled the pensinsula and ended near the Falmouth Docks area.  We followed it until it ended at the street that we needed to follow to get to our hotel. We enjoyed the peaceful surroundings on the moat path.  That was much better than having to walk across a busy city.

This picture is looking back at the bridge to the castle gate (over the moat) where we’d gotten our helpful directions.

We couldn’t avoid city walking altogether.  Our hotel was located along the Falmouth Harbor area.  We first passed the Falmouth Docks area and were interested to see a very large ship in dry dock there for repairs.  

Our hotel was called the Chain Locker.  It was more of a bar/restaurant with some rooms upstairs, than a hotel. The Chain Locker has a long history.  It was first opened in the 1660’s and the building is considered to be one of Falmouth’s oldest.  It was recently restored in a two-year project by the St. Austell brewery -the current owner. It appeared suitably authentic, with a bit of modern polish to it.  

The hotel actually sits sideways to the harbor.  Our phones left us scratching our heads as we were directed down a narrow alleyway and we couldn’t find where to enter the hotel!  The sign was there… but nothing that looked like a hotel lobby entrance.

This art store was across the alley from the hotel.  It is called Sailor’s Jail.  As it turns out, the building was actually a jail years ago. It had some very unusual art.

Eventually we tried walking through a cross-through tunnel we’d noticed that took us under the building -from the alley through to a big open dockside area.  That was where the front of the pub/hotel was. (There was a bit more to the building/structure to the right of what shows in the picture below).

The remodeling added some metal balconies and this was the view of the harbor from the balcony off the upper restaurant (the lower area was a small cozy traditional bar mostly.  This balcony also partially wrapped around to the front of the hotel, but not overlapping the original building as seen in the above picture of the front.

In front of this side of the hotel was a very large quay (sort of a dock area) that was full of tables for the various restaurants that seemed to share it.  Later in the evening, I took this picture of it from our room. (The buildings in the picture to the right face the main road along the harbor).

We were early for check-in and -as is our luck- and when the staff checked with the maids they were told our room was the last one being cleaned.  Our bags hadn’t arrived yet either.

We took the opportunity to have lunch, and then walked along the harbor road.  It was obvious that this area was “tourist central” based on the stores, bars & restaurants lining the road in either direction.

While this was our last day of the SW Coast Path walking experience, we did have ongoing travel plans.  The luggage transfer company only allowed us one bag each and there was a size/weight limit on the bags.  I worked hard to get the things I needed for this trip into the smallest suitcase possible -but doing that made it mandatory to find time to do laundry before we changed gears and traveled onward.

I’d pinpointed a laundry mat that was reasonably close to the hotel, so as soon as we got into our room and could open the suitcases…we piled up our clothes to be washed and headed off.  It was about a mile UPHILL all the way.

When we found the laundry mat, it was tiny and all of the machines were in use.  That was something I hadn’t planned for as our hope was to get the laundry done fast.  But talking to the ladies in there, they made it clear that that laundry mat was not self-service.  They were being paid to do other people’s laundry.  After a brief discussion, they pointed us to a different laundry-mat, located another mile further away and mostly UPHILL again!  Mike grumbled most of the way there about how the “Russian Mafia” had taken over the first laundry-mat.  (The women working in there did have some sort of accents).  When we got to laundry-mat #2, the signs inside said that we could get change for the machines next door.  When I went next door they said I had to buy something first and then they’d give me the change back in coins for the machines.

By the time we finished that job and got back to the hotel, we’d added three miles to our mileage count for the day for a total of eight miles.  We grabbed some dinner nearby, then went back to the room and worked on repacking everything for our departure the next day.

I am so glad I was able to experience these few days of the SW Coast Path -although I can’t speak for Mike 😄.  The views always seemed to uplift me, even if some of them made us work hard for the privilege.  It was the perfect time for spring flowers to be blooming everywhere.  Every day there seemed to be what I started calling – Mother Nature’s floral arrangements- dotting the trail, which also gave me a lift.  The people we came across during the week were friendly and happy to have a bit of a chat.  We got lucky with the weather and enjoyed mostly sunny days.  It is always so nice to visit somewhere you’ve dreamed of visiting and not end up disappointed with your experience.  My only regret is that I didn’t give us enough extra time in SW England to do a bit more exploring after we finished walking.

The first week of this vacation was about the walking. The next week of our vacation will bring a change of pace:  We’re going to be tourists!

Stay tuned to find out where we went next.

Categories: England -SW Coast Path 2025, Helford Point to Falmouth -5 Miles (+)