Mevagissey Harbour

A coastal town with a history going back thousands of years to the Iron Age. Today Mevagissey is a hotspot for tourists and locals alike because of its location, Its beauty, and its design. The harbour is still a working fishing harbour and that alone is a big plus these days seeing as how the EU has systematically tried to destroy the fishing communities of the UK, aided and abetted by the UK's own MPs over years of pandering to Europes disastrous fishing policies which placed our brave and dynamic fishermen in the forefront of a war they never wished to fight.
Sadly many of those fishermen lost their livelihoods, their communities slowly shriveled to the point of extinction, and younger folk lost another avenue of employment in the process.

That said, I do not wish to turn this piece into a political statement, but to report on the excellent qualities of a great post in the heart of Cornwall.

View of the inner harbour taken from the West side.

Some places such as Perranporth are fully blown tourist holiday hotspots, full in the summer months, and quietly eerie in the winter. Mevagissey on the other hand is certainly very busy in the summer but attracts folk all year round because it still persists as a working port with its myriad of small boats and trawlers ever plying back and forth. In short, it feels like a working port and that is a feather in its cap, people want to see that, they want to know what a working fishing port actually does and how it feels.

As you would expect from a small fishing port, the streets are packed close together and most places can only take the width of a car, but that too adds to the ambiance of the place. The shops, which are many, line these streets with all manner of goods on offer from tourist souvenirs, fishing tackle, and bait, clothing, pastie stores, and excellent bakeries all offer good service. There are plenty of places to eat including hand-held fish and chips in paper, Bistro's, and restaurants offering a wide range of excellent foods, especially locally caught fish.
Mevagissey looks lovely whether the tide is in or out, but we like it best when the sunlight bounces off the water at high tides, it sparkles like a million diamonds and looks just as good.
The inner and outer harbours are strewn with fishing gear for the boats and you will see nets, fish boxes, water storage, lobster pots, and much more all in vivid colours that will test your camera and its lens.

High tides can be very scary for the harbour businesses as the water often overflows the top of the harbour walls and encroach into the nearby streets. When you walk about the harbour you will notice many shopfronts have waterproof seals available for such events over the door entrances. You can crab around the harbour as this is allowed with no charges and can be fun. Fishing too is catered for with a good tackle shop providing fishing gear and bait, and fishing is free, but the car parks are not!  I do not know what the potentials are for fishing as I have not got around to that stage yet but it should be pretty good as the layout of the harbour seem fishing friendly.

The harbour area does get very crowded once the summer season starts so do not expect to find a small empty port, this place is very popular, and the people numbers support that fact. You can of course follow the coastal paths that run all around the area and lead from one village to the next with spectacular views from the cliffs of the Cornish landscape. There are a few small beaches to sit on if so desired on either side of the port where the kids can play quite contentedly. 

So go visit Mevagissey, like us, it may end up being one of your favourite harbours in the UK. We do not know anyone that gets tired of visiting this picturesque part of England.

Photo Gallery for Mevagissey  - click on photo to enlarge, use side arrows in photo when hovered to browse