Introduction

Shortlisting our small Cornish fishing villages is the purpose of this post. We want a short list of villages to profile, photograph or visit. This will be achieved by revisiting our long list of 10 villages (see below also) and applying our criteria: are the villages quintessential small fishing villages; do the villages offer good opportunities for photography; and are they villages which feature prominently in TV shows we have watched over the years?

In particular, we want to select two or three villages that are suitable case studies or profiles; a couple more that offer good opportunities to take photographs; and a couple we’ll just visit for the day or lunch. A short list of six villages seems appropriate.

We’ll provide a brief synopsis of each location and offer our view about the location. In this post we’ll look at Padstow, Boscastle and Port Isaac. The next post will continue to examine the other locations.

Some initial judgements

The long list of 10 small fishing villages identified in our last post included:

  1. Boscastle (Picturesque)
  2. Port Isaac (Doc Martin)
  3. Padstow (Rick Stein; active fishing village)
  4. St Ives (holiday resort)
  5. Polperro (active fishing village)
  6. Charlestown (Poldark)
  7. Mevagissey (active fishing village)
  8. Portleven (Alex Polizzi)
  9. Marazion (St Michael’s Mount)
  10. Mousehole (small fishing village)

Initially, these villages can be separated by location. For example:

Group 1

  • Boscastle, Port Issac, Padstow

Group 2

  • Polperro, Charlestown, Mevagissey

Group 3

  • Porthleven, Marazion, Mousehole

Group 4

  • St Ives

Shortlisting our small Cornish fishing villages can start by grouping the villages in this way. First, St Ives is geographically isolated (relatively speaking). Furthermore, it is a holiday resort rather than a fishing village and doesn’t rate on our TV experience. Hence, we can delete St Ives from our list.

Secondly, Marazion (St Michael’s Mount) is another very popular tourist attraction (everybody has been there and photographed it) and it isn’t a fishing village. So, we can discount Marazion as a priority.

This leaves eight small villages.

Group 1

  • Boscastle, Port Issac, Padstow

Group 2

  • Polperro, Charlestown, Mevagissey

Group 3

  • Porthleven, Mousehole

These groups also point to areas where we could stay while in Cornwall. By staying in the areas represented by the groups we could more effectively build village profiles and take better photographs.

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More information about each small fishing village

To help shortlisting our small Cornish fishing villages further we need more information. Listed below are five key features of each village.

Boscastle

The Cornwall Guide listed Boscastle as one of its top 10 fishing villages. Furthermore, Culture Trip listed Boscastle as one of its 10 most beautiful towns in Cornwall. This view was supported by OceanBlueCornwall who named it as one of its 11 most picturesque villages.

There are a few features which are consistently mentioned:

  1. Its small steep-sided natural harbour which dates from medieval times is very picturesque.
  2. Offers excellent photographic opportunities from Penally Hill looking back into the harbour at sunset.
  3. Plenty of thatched and white-washed cottages in this 15th century village.
  4. Located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with stunning coastlines and close to Tintagel. Much of the village and surrounding area is owned by the National Trust.
  5. There is a Museum of Witchcraft and a good pottery shop.

Our view: The village of Boscastle rates an afternoon visit to stroll through the village and take photographs of the harbour at sunset. Furthermore, we are not staying in Boscastle long enough to profile the village in any depth.

Port Isaac

Port Isaac has acquired considerable fame as the village where the very popular TV series Doc Martin is filmed. Fans of Doc Martin will recognise Port Isaac as the fictitious Port Wenn! The small Cornish village is also rated in the Cornwall Guide’s top 10 fishing villages; and as picturesque by OceanBlueCornwall.

Important features of Port Isaac include:

  1. Port Isaac is home to the very popular TV series Doc Martin. It also featured in the Poldark series in the 1970s.
  2. Active fishing port with local fisherman catching fish, crab and lobsters.
  3. Local village has 90 Grade II listed buildings with whitewashed cottages and granite slate-fronted houses.
  4. Famous lifeboat station whose crew won medals for gallantry in 2012.
  5. Pier constructed during the reign of Henry 8th.

Our view: We need to visit Port Isaac, perhaps for lunch, so we can say we’ve seen the grumpy Doc’s home! Furthermore, we are not staying in Port Isaac long enough to profile the village in any depth.

Padstow

Padstow has transformed itself into a favourite holiday destination for national and international travellers alike. Furthermore, it has become a very popular destination for “sea-foodies”. It is located along a very rugged and picturesque coastline and offers ready access to Boscastle and Port Isaac in the North, Newquay in the south, and Wadebridge and Bodmin to the east. As such it presents itself as a good base for exploring the northern part of Cornwall.

Padstow highlights include:

  1. A prime holiday location by virtue of its location, fine selection of restaurants well serviced by the local fishing fleet, and access to nearby beaches.
  2. A fine selection of restaurants specialising in seafood. Of note, are Rick Stein’s establishments, Paul Ainsworth Number 6 fine dining restaurant, and the Old Ship Hotel.
  3. A picturesque harbour with fishing boats large and small, plus pleasure yachts. The protected inner harbour has a tidal gate providing plenty of water for the moored boats and yachts. As such it is attractive to photographers.
  4. Access to the South West Coastal path on both sides of the Camel River by virtue of the ferry between Padstow and Rock; and provision of a very popular trail along the old railway line between Padstow and Wadebridge.
  5. A suitable base for tourists wishing to explore the northern section of Cornwall: Boscastle, Tintagel, Port Isaac, Wadebridge and Bodmin, and Newquay.

Our view: Padstow will make a god base for to explore Padstow itself, Boscastle, Port Isaac and perhaps Tintagel, Bodmin or Newquay. We would be devastated if we visited Cornwall and didn’t visit Padstow. We’ve always had a goal to visit Padstow and dine at a Rick Stein restaurant, especially since we’ve watched so many of his TV shows. Finally, Padstow is a place we should consider profiling in greater depth.

Conclusion

Our long list of 10 villages has been narrowed to eight by shortlisting our small Cornish fishing villages. We did this by cutting St Ives and Marazion. These two locations don’t meet our criteria related to fishing villages and featuring in TV shows we have watched. Furthermore, we’ve determined that Padstow is a potential base suitable for profiling; it also allows us to travel to Boscastle for an afternoon photographic excursion and Port Isaac for lunch to see where Doc Martin was filmed.

Finally, should we have time, visits to Tintagel, Newquay, Wadebridge and Bodmin are possible.

In our next post we’ll continue shortlisting our small Cornish fishing villages by looking at Polperro, Charlestown, Mevagissey, Porthleven and Mousehole.

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