Saturday 23 May 2026

Day 29 of walking
Mawnan Smith to Falmouth
Distance: 12.38 km
Total distance: 578.66 km
Climbing: 426 m
Total climb: 18,800 m

What a contrast from yesterday. We knew we had a short day today so we had a late breakfast and took everything very slowly. We didn’t leave until 9.45am and the walk was on a road, through a little woodland and then a paved footpath all the way to Falmouth. Our hotel tonight is at Gyllyngvase Beach which is about 15 minutes walking before Falmouth. It was only 4.75 kilometres from yesterday’s Trelawne Hotel to today’s Membly Hotel, which took us about 1½ hours, so we were there by 11.15 and check-in wasn’t until 3pm.

There are three charming little beaches between Mawnan Smith and Falmouth – Maenporth, Swanpool and Gyllyngvase. They are all very sheltered and popular with families, swimmers, kayakers and paddle boarders. It was a hot, sunny, windless day so they were going to get busy. We had previously swum at Gyllyngvase at this time of year and the water was freezing.

To fill in time we walked around the headland of Pendennis Point. The stretch of water between Falmouth and the land across the water at St Mawes is called Carrick Roads. The entrance to Carrick Roads, and Falmouth Harbour is guarded by two castles built by Henry VIII. Pendennis Castle and another in St Mawes. In 2018 we spent a day at Pendennis Castle and knew today it would be over run with visitors from the cruise ships, so we decided to keep well away.

Falmouth is a working port and holiday resort rolled into one. It is a sheltered deep-water port and so has a large ship building and repair industry, as well as being a major yachting centre. It has tall ship festivals and major yacht regattas and marinas with thousands of pleasure craft. We ate our lunch down on the waterfront near the National Maritime Museum and a large square filled with a craft market. There was also some form of performance going on with a large crowd standing around and loud outbursts of clapping and cheering every minute or so. We walked through the old part of town but it was awful. Too many people, too many dogs, too many vehicles trying to push through.

Two cruise ships were in Falmouth today. Falmouth is on the circuit of around the UK cruises. The Viking Saturn was at a dock and the Majestic Princess was anchored out in the bay. A continuous stream of orange tenders was taking passengers out to the Princess and back. There were probably an additional 5,000 visitors in Falmouth from the cruise ships and the town, bars, cafes, shops and waterfront were packed. You could tell the cruise ship people by their red (Viking) and blue (Princess) lanyards around their necks with their identity cards. There was also a fleet of buses taking them out on day excursions.

We went down to the Prince of Wales Pier to check out the Falmouth to St Mawes ferry for the morning. One of two ferries we will use tomorrow. Tomorrow is Sunday so there is only one ferry per hour and we want to get an early one. This is a regular, year-round service in a decent sized boat. All of the walking today was ‘urban walking’ except for a short stretch at the beginning in a quiet woodland. It was on paved surfaces, through a built up environment and close to busy roads. Such a contrast to the walking we have been doing in remote areas where you can walk for hours and not see a soul. This will change tomorrow when we cross the River Fal to St Mawes and the Roseland peninsula and we are back on a more remote coast.