The North End of Watergate Bay

Being so isolated makes it really special. You only go there to go there; it’s not on the way to anywhere else. And because it’s more than a mile from the hotel, few people walk all that way, particularly with children and beach gear and food and everything else. So you can find these coves where you’re there by yourselves all day. There’s just a sense of space which is quite unlike anywhere else I can think of in Cornwall.

There are sandy coves if you just want to sunbathe; rocky coves where you can find sea glass and do a bit of treasure hunting; the most amazing rock pools for swimming or finding sea life… And then, right out on the headland, the big mussel beds, which at spring low tide exposes some pretty awesome-sized, beautifully clean North Atlantic mussels. With all of those things together, if anybody was to say, “Where would you like to go right now?” it would always be to the north end of Watergate. That’s for me, anyway.

TIM: Yes. And the surf down there is a little bit bigger than out the front, and less crowded. So I’ve always surfed the north end. That trek up and down there with longboard in the wind is always a mission but it’s always worth it when you get there.

I didn’t actually arrive in Cornwall until I was 21, apart from holidays with my parents – so my experiences were very different to yours. My first experience of the north end was being walked up there by a bunch of locals working in the hotels, for a party – it was called the ‘Magic Rock Festival’ (the rock at the end is called Magic Rock). During the day it was a surf competition and then in the evening it was a party. A good friend of ours had a tequila bar and we set it all up down there. So very different first experiences!

It nearly ate me whole. I had to be wrestled out of it...

TIM: Yeah we should have some good photos to play with! Another thing we touched on yesterday was the time about 20 years ago when I discovered a smuggler’s hole, just around the corner in the next cove. When you surf the north end and you look up at the cliffs, there’s a little square hole. It intrigued me for a few years, and so I decided one day, with a few friends, to go and have a look. There was an old smuggler’s path running down to the cove; a bit sketchy – you wouldn’t do it now, without being roped up. But we got to the entrance and there was a big metal stake and a rope going into this hole. So we climbed inside and then a space about your average size living room was carved out inside the cliff.

There was a hole in the bottom, covered in old planks of driftwood, which we moved aside and then dropped some stones down, and you could hear them dropping into the cave below. So I think the boats used to come in and then they’d pull the booty up, probably tea chests and barrels of brandy and all sorts. There are also a couple of mining holes down there, so it could also have been something to do with mining – but we’re pretty sure it’s smuggling. There were two tunnels going up to the back, which I think they were trying to get under the coast path to the fields so they could escape the customs men… It was probably late 18^th century. All quite exciting.

WILL: A bit Indiana Jones! When we were excavating out the foundations to build Watchful Mary we found a hand-dug mineshaft. It wasn’t particularly big – maybe a metre and half diameter. But it was a hell of a thing when the digger driver put his bucket through it, and there was a gaping hole. They must have gone straight in through the cliff and found a seam of tin or something…

TIM: Well, before they invented the beam engine to pump the water out, the only mining they could really do was to follow the seams of tin inshore from the coast – otherwise digging down, you’d hit the water tables. So some of the earliest mines were like this. It’s similar at Bedruthan Steps and along towards Whipsiderry – there are lots in the cliffs there as well.

TIM: Oh yes… When my children were young we took them up there on our big kayak, and as we were heading round to the Beacon Cove we were joined by the pod of dolphins that live around this coast. We had our dog in the kayak with us as well; it was quite a strange experience having dolphins around the kayak and the dog looking at them as well!

There’s some amazing wildlife to be seen around there. Only last year we saw a sun-fish. And we were diving down picking up spider crabs…in the middle of a great ball of fish at one point, with gannets diving around us. All this wildlife is just there off the tip of Watergate – you don’t have to go far out to find it.

TIM: At the other end of the scale, once I was surfing at the north end, around 1996/97 I think, and there was a huge roaring sound. A Concorde came over the cliffs, taking off from the one time it’s ever landed at RAF St Mawgan. Apparently it did an emergency landing there and it took off over the cliffs. That sticks in my mind as another amazing experience there.

Oh, and sometimes you get the foam… It’s basically plankton – the froth you get as it’s smashed together on the beach. I remember one year we had a big storm and it was about 10ft high across half the beach. Everyone thought it was great fun to run in and out of – then they realised that it absolutely stank of fish! I couldn’t drive on the beach that day because so many people were running in and out of the foam. I’ve never seen it like that since.