Season: winter
The sand had been pulled from the beach at Porthbeor during recent storms. Large boulders had replaced it by the sea, glistening in the wake of the ebb tide. Access was tricky too, as the wooden steps had been completely washed away and subsidence had destabilised the coast path down to the beach. However, the beach itself was a haven of peace and tranquility, a calm after the storm. Out at sea there was no suggestion of the wildness that has preceded this visit.
A summer walk on the Roseland – photo gallery
Memories of the beach for Simon.
The scene after recent storms at Porthbeor beach.
Season: winter
It was a quiet, rainy morning at Porthbeor for this visit. The tide was falling back, revealing another new beach. Out on the flat sea cormorants could be clearly seen about their business and a couple of buzzards circled above. Otherwise, this beautiful, natural beach was briefly the domain of interviewee Yayeri, enjoying the elemental power of this wonderful environment.
Yayeri’s two-fold appreciation of the beach and a chance to look back in time.
The harmony of a quiet beach in the winter.
Extra winter visit photo gallery
Season: summer
There was a tranquil, Mediterranean feel at Porthbeor beach for this summer visit. The sea lapped against the beach towards high tide. The outstanding setting, totally natural, made the long, steep descent worthwhile.
Beachgoer Olly’s view of the beach, when looked at under the sea.
The stunning setting for Porthbeor beach.
The beaches of Molunan and Porthbeor are so much part of my life that it’s difficult to describe what they mean to me. In my childhood and when my own two boys were young, they were places for picnics, swimming, boats and always family, cousins galore. I remember hot summer days walking back up from Porthbeor beach in bare feet and looking back down, wishing I were still there. I hated having to say goodbye.
I love their wild romance in the winter and spring and enjoy looking at the views which are ever changing but always breathtakingly beautiful. I think Byron put in words what I feel about the beach and the coast and I am reminded of them when I am going for a walk and looking down on these beaches:
‘There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more, from these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before, to mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal. ‘
I love swimming off Molunan or Porthbeor in the early morning, before breakfast, with my sister, when the sea is as clear as glass and there is no-one around except for us, and when our boys, who are now in their twenties, join us, there is really nothing to beat it.
And every beach I go to, whether abroad or here in the UK, has to be really special to match these two beaches. I have been spoilt! Such happy, happy, memories.