Our next day trip was a tour of northern Cornwall.   We began by going to NewQuay.  It is a very large town and has several beaches.  It draws the surfing crowd so there a lot of night clubs and it’s definitely a young persons town.  There is house on a large rock outcrop in the middle of the beach with a swing bridge linking it to another house the main cliff.  It was once an art gallery but is now cordoned off as private property which is a pity it would have interesting to go there.

Our next stop after NewQuay was Bedruthen Steps.  You park your car high on the cliff top, follow a short path across the rocky cliff top to a set of stone steps that lead down onto a beautiful beach.  The entire beach is cut off at high tide, so there are big signs everywere as the tide comes in fast and covers the beach and the steps 2 hours before high tide.

From there we went to Padstow which was very crowded and we went to a couple of car parks and were unable to find a parking spot so we decided to abandon Padstow and instead we headed to Port Isaac.  There was a car park high on the cliff and you had to walk down very steep roads to reach the town.  It is very pretty.  Famous for being the location of the Doc Martin TV series.  You can buy souvenirs and Doc Martin postcards from one shop in town.  You get the impression the rest of the town doesn’t want to know about it.  The very steep paths lead eventually down to a very pretty little fishing harbour dating back to the 14^th century. It’s narrow winding streets are lined with white washed cottages and traditional granite slate fronted Cornish cottages many of which are listed or of historical importance.  We wandered all around Port Isaac taking photos and very high up on the hill is the house used in the TV series as the surgery.  Quite a lot of people were there taking photos. We did as well.

From there we drove along some very narrow winding lanes and eventually reached Tintagel a ruined castle on the rugged coastline.  There are trails leading up to the castle and there is also a church to explore.  The village of Tintagel is very pretty to walk around and there is also an historic post office.

From Tintagel we went to Boscastle, a tiny port with a natural harbour, set in a narrow ravine, and has some very attractive thatches and white-washed cottages.  There are some lovely cliff top walks and spectacular ocean views.