Make a holiday cottage or holiday rental home in Portscatho, Cornwall your home away from home

Portscatho is a former Cornish pilchard fishing village in the southwest corner of Gerrans Bay on the Roseland Peninsula. The beach has sandy patches but is mainly rock. The cove is east facing and so offers shelter from the customary southwest winds.

Places to holiday in Portscatho

The sheltered cove makes Portscatho a safe place to swim and the village is close to the fine sandy beaches of the Cornwall coast, making Portscatho a firm family favourite with holidaymakers. Once the home of many hotels and guesthouses, Portscatho has kept in line with current trends and now offers more self-catering apartments and holiday cottages.

Staying in a Cornish cottage allows you to explore Portscatho and the Roseland Peninsular without worrying about getting back on time for an evening meal. It is also situated conveniently for travelling to St Austell, Falmouth or Truro for shopping or exploring the surrounding villages like Gerrans, St Mawes, Veryan Tregony, Portholland and Portloe.

There are several shops in the village centre including grocers, off licence, butchers, galleries and gift shops. A twenty-minute walk along the cliff path brings you to the Porthcurnick beach and its acres of soft sand and further east are Pendower and Carne beaches.

Things to do in Portscatho

The national Trust owns much of the land around Portscatho and you can spend much of the day doing a circular walk along the coast path past St Anthony Head, Place House, St Anthony's church, Froe and Bohortha. There are signposts all around so you don't have to worry about getting lost. This is a great bird watching area so look out for grey herons, shags, skylarks, cormorants, guillemots, woodpeckers and sky larks.

When you want to stop for a break, the Plume of Feathers serves good pub food and St Austell Ales and the Royal Standard in Gerrans is only five minutes walk. Other pubs within three miles include the Roseland Inn, the Victory Inn and the New Inn. Portscatho offer cyclists a variety of Cycling, cycle paths and cycle hire and if golf is your sport Portscatho is the perfect base to explore the thirty-nine golf courses in Cornwall.

Portscatho cottages are ideal if you want to experience sailing, take a fishing trip or partake in other water sports. The nearby Mylor Sailing School has courses ranging for a half day to a full week and the Roseland Paddle and Sail on the beautiful Percuil River offer windsurfing, sailing, canoeing lessons and hire of equipment. Orca Sea Safaris operate bird and wildlife watching and eco-tourism trips all year round from its base in Falmouth, a real chance to get up close to the sea birds, seals, dolphins and basking sharks. St Mawes Sit On Kayaks hire out for three hours of fun and if you are looking for high-speed thrills you can enjoy a luxury powerboat cruiser of private charter at Falmouth.

Weather in Portscatho

The climate in Portscatho is mild as can be seen by the many exquisite gardens in the area that have thriving exotic plants, such as those at St Mawes Castle, Lamorran House, Pendennis Castle, Penjerrick, Bosvigo, Caerhays Castle, Trebah and Trewithen House.

Travel to and around Portscatho

Newquay (NQY) is the nearest airport for Portscatho. The mainline railway stops at Truro or Falmouth, as do National Express coaches and Truronian 50/51 buses travel from Truro to Portscatho on the way to St Mawes. You may also like to use the King Harry Ferry for travel around the Roseland peninsular, as this is much quicker than by road.