Bedruthan Steps is a beach on the north Cornish coast eight kilometres north of Newquay, and it is the most photographed stretch of coastline in the county for a reason: a line of enormous slate sea stacks standing out from the sand beneath cliffs a hundred metres high.
The National Trust site is called Carnewas, after the old mine buildings at the clifftop, and it consists of a car park, a shop, a tea room and — the point — a clifftop path running the length of the bay.
Five or six major stacks, depending on how you count, standing in a rough line across the beach: Queen Bess Rock, Samaritan Island, Diggory’s Island, Redcove Island, Pendarves Island.
They are the hard remnants of headlands whose softer connecting rock the sea has taken. Queen Bess Rock was named for a profile of Elizabeth I that people once saw in it; the profile has since fallen off.
The story that the stacks were the stepping stones of a giant called Bedruthan is a Victorian invention — coined in the nineteenth century to give the tourists something to hear, and repeated so often that it now sounds ancient. The name is genuinely old; the giant is not.
This is what most visitors actually come for and it costs nothing.
The South West Coast Path runs along the top of the bay for well over a kilometre, with viewpoints throughout, and the view along the line of stacks with the Atlantic behind them is exceptional in almost any weather. In a big swell it is spectacular.
The path is grassy, undulating and close to unfenced cliff edge in places.
North the path leads to Park Head, a National Trust headland with an Iron Age cliff castle, and on to Porthcothan. South it runs to Mawgan Porth and Watergate Bay.
There is a steep staircase cut into the cliff, and it needs its own paragraph.
It is closed more often than it is open. The staircase suffers repeated rockfall and storm damage, is closed every winter as a matter of routine, and has been shut for extended periods for reconstruction. Check the National Trust website before you travel if getting onto the sand is the point of your visit.
When it is open: it is steep, there are around 140 steps, and it is hard work back up.
The beach itself is dangerous. There are no lifeguards, the tide comes in fast and cuts the beach off completely, and there are strong rips. Swimming is not advised at any state of the tide. The Trust’s warnings here are blunt and are based on incidents. Go at low water, walk among the stacks, and be back up well before the tide turns.
The clifftop is free and open at all times. Parking is charged and is free to National Trust members; the car park fills on fine days.
Facilities: a shop and a tea room in the old mine buildings at Carnewas, seasonal.
Time: an hour for the clifftop; two or three with the beach.
Access: the clifftop path is grass and uneven with slopes; the beach staircase is not accessible.
Exposure: it is an Atlantic clifftop. There is no shelter.
Best time: early or late in the day for the light and the crowds, and in a swell for the sea.
Not reliably. The staircase closes every winter and after rockfall, and has been shut for long periods. Check the National Trust site before travelling.
The clifftop path and viewpoints are free. Parking is charged and free to members.
No. There are no lifeguards, strong rips and a fast tide that cuts the beach off. Swimming is not advised.
No — that story was invented in the nineteenth century for visitors. The stacks are eroded headlands.
Eight kilometres north, about fifteen minutes by road, with a coastal bus in season.