St Mawes Cornwall UK

Blue Velvet at anchor off St Mawes

On Wednesday 25 August we woke in St Mawes to another beautiful day.  We were keen to get ashore to explore, both to visit the castle (and not just to make in-roads into our English Heritage annual pass!) and to see something of the village itself.  As a part of latter, Neil had said that we had to try the cinnamon buns at the Da Bara Bakery which is run by friends he and Nici met on holiday.

Looking south across St Mawes.  The harbour is to the left of the pier.  On spring tides much of it dries

We dinghied into the harbour where we found a couple of options for leaving the dinghy.  There is a pontoon which is generally afloat (except at low spring tides).  The harbourmaster charges £5 per day for the use of the pontoon.  Or you can tie your dinghy to steps in the harbour wall.  There’s no charge for this but the steps dry so you might end up with a long carry back to the water, as we did later in the day.

Attractive housing lines the road that leads up to St Mawes Castle

The houses lining the harbour and the road leading up to the castle are most attractive and have fabulous views across the inlet.

View along the beach below the road that leads up to St Mawes Castle

Da Bara Bakery cinnamon buns and coffee, as recommended by Neil in Dartmouth

We enjoyed the views whilst taking elevenses as recommended, and very good the buns were too!

A beautiful day to be sailing….or to be touristy by the sea

Coffee-stop complete we strolled up to the castle……

St Mawes Castle entrance

……which really is rather impressive.

We were far from the only people enjoying the castle, and the grounds were filled with people picnicking or just enjoying the views, like us.

Top: when the castle was in its prime the square stone contained a carved and painted
 coat of arms but centuries of erosion have worn it away.  
Bottom: view out across the entrance to Falmouth Harbour from one of the gun
 emplacement ports.  Pendennis Castle (originally a near double of that at St Mawes)
 can be seen on the headland to the right of the picture.  Between them the guns
 of 2 castles could cover the whole of the harbour entrance

The views from the main tower are, unsurprisingly good and it was lovely to see so many boats out on the water enjoying the fabulous weather.

A sample of the weaponry, some replica, some original, on display inside St Mawes Castle.  The circular tower
allowed for all round defence, though the hillside close behind the castle was probably its most vulnerable point

Inside there are displays of the weaponry in use in the castle when it was first built and for the century or 2 afterwards.

In time, the castle expanded and gun emplacements were set up outside the main tower, providing greater defensive cover further up the harbour

The castle from the outside.  Top and bottom left: from one of the lower gun emplacements.  Top left: note the
gable end of the sunken magazine which housed powder and shot for the outer emplacements

The gun emplacements outside the tower are also well stocked with replica and original cannon.  Closer to the water are some more modern emplacements (c19th century) where cannon were mounted on swivel systems to provide greater arcs of fire.

The castle from the landward side

The upper reaches of St Mawes, where there is excellent all-round protection.  Much or the area is very shallow
 and, whether deep or shallow, the whole area is filled with moorings

From the castle we meandered back into the village via a variety of small, steep lanes and then headed further out, past and through some more modern housing estates, to see the inner reaches of the St Mawes inlet from the landward side.  It’s a shame that there is no coastal path running along the water’s edge (and the foreshore looked very muddy!) but there were some access points to the water and we also enjoyed views across the inlet from the road, as well as views of some very up-market properties!

St Mawes’ beach.  The harbour wall can be seen just above the lower tree branch.  The dinghy pontoon is just
 visible above the branch, to the right of the end of the wall

Back around the headland we reached the main beach, which was busy with paddleboarders and sandcastle builders alike.  This is probably where our pilot book means when it states ‘anchor off the beach’ but since it was written, moorings have taken over in this area, leaving no space for a casual visitor.  Given the settled easterly weather, our anchorage nearer the entrance suited us perfectly, and we could happily have stayed for several days more.  However, we had plans to join in with some Ocean Cruising Club events in Falmouth for the weekend and so, given that it was a Bank Holiday weekend and likely to be busy, we had decided to head across the estuary the next day.

St Mawes, Cornwall, UK