South West Coast Path - Talland Bay to Polperro

Notes from the South West Coast Path; in this blog series we document the short stretches we've done with the aim of helping others to enjoy it piece by piece. If there is any useful information that we’ve missed out, let us know in the comments!

Talland Bay to Polperro - 1.2 miles (and back again) - 2.4 miles / 3.9 km total

Starting and finishing - Talland Bay Beach Café, PL13 2JA

Halfway turning point – Polperro, PL13 2RB

Ease of walking

This was a very pleasant walk overall with good views out to sea and a quiet path despite the Easter bank holiday. There were steep sections where the path sloped down into Polperro and Talland Bay at either end but aside from that, a fairly steady path for the middle stretch. The path was quite rough with lots of bare rock and long stretches of mud and puddles which may have challenged someone more unsteady on their feet.

Wildlife

Sadly I didn’t see many birds aside from gulls and crows with no sea life in the water that I could spot, despite searching with my binoculars. There were however lots of butterflies and other pollinators which were lovely to see in the sunshine after a grey and rainy winter. I saw lots of Peacock butterflies and Speckled Woods in particular.

Refreshments

The café at Talland Bay was fantastic, good coffee and excellent crab sandwiches! There was limited inside seating but there were some little huts outside which we hid from the rain in. I didn’t pause in Polperro but there were plenty of cafes, pubs and ice cream kiosks in the village.

Toilets

There were some portaloos in the car park at Talland Bay, not the nicest but what can you expect from a portaloo! There were plenty of cafes and pubs in Polperro which I'm sure had facilities for customers as well as public toilets at both ends of Polperro village.

Parking

There was a small amount of parking spaces at Talland Bay after a steep and narrow drive down in the Cornish lanes. This is not a drive to do unless you’re happy to do some reversing and navigating around other cars in small lay-bys. The parking wasn’t too expensive but the card payment didn’t work so you had to find some cash. I only had enough for an hour so I gambled that no parking attendants would be visiting and stayed for 3 hours in the end without any issues.

In Polperro there’s a very large car park that’s easy to find when you drive down into the valley, from there you can walk down into the village and pick up the coast path, doing the walk in the reverse, i.e. Polperro to Talland Bay and back.

Time to spare?

There are some countryside loops if you want to do a different route back from Polperro and of course you can carry on a bit further from Polperro and aim for some beautiful beaches further on such as Lantic Bay or Lansallos Beach.