Mousehole to Praa Sands: South West Coast Path Day 25 Guide

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Waking up this morning inside someone else’s campervan was a bit of a shock, but one look at the sodden ground and collapsed tent at the other end of the field made me very glad I’d taken the campsite managers up on their offer yesterday.

My tent had thankfully survived the night, although for once it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if it hadn’t: now that my walk had unexpectedly become a solo endeavour, I’d be collecting a new, smaller model from a post office in Penzance on the way through today.

Thanking the campsite managers repeatedly for their generosity, I headed off back through the village of Paul and down the steep lane that I’d sweated my way up the evening before. A stiff breeze was blowing the last of the rain away, and other than a brief shower or two, I stayed dry for the rest of the day.

After a decent breakfast at the popular Mousehole Deli & Kitchen, I followed the trail markers past the harbour. Even this early in the day it was already starting to get busy with tourists, but they all disappeared as soon as I left the village.

Most of today would be spent walking around the vast sweep of Mount’s Bay, which was not only incredibly scenic once the clouds blew away, but also the flattest section I’d walked in a long time. My legs were not sad about this development.

From Mousehole, the path just ran along the footpath beside busy Cliff Road for a couple of miles into Newlyn. There were decent views out over the bay, at least, even if all the traffic and concrete made it a bit hard to concentrate on them.

Passing the seafood market, boat yards, and fishing supply stores along the water, Newlyn felt quite grey and industrial on this dull, cloudy morning, but the colourful harbour and a few attractive old buildings meant the place still had its charms.

Newlyn merged seamlessly into Penzance, although I didn’t get to see a lot of it: the Coast Path runs along an endless promenade beside the ocean, and with no need for food or drink, I just put my head down and marched on through.

The wind was getting stronger all the time, with whitecaps in the bay and large waves occasionally crashing over the sea wall. It wasn’t the most pleasant mile I’ve walked on this trail, and I was glad to pass the war memorial and turn the corner towards the harbour. Not because I was excited to see more small boats, just because I was briefly sheltered from the wind and spray!

That shelter didn’t last long. After walking through a carpark opposite the train station, I emerged back beside the water on a sweeping path between a tall seawall on one side and a long rocky erosion barrier on the other. Apparently today’s crashing waves weren’t a rarity around here.

Penzance is the biggest town in this part of Cornwall, which meant it had useful things like supermarkets that had been in short supply lately. That’s why I broke off from the trail at Long Rock Beach, first to double back to Morrissons to resupply with protein bars and sugary treats, and then to head to the local post office to collect my new tent.

“I’ll be back in five minutes”, I assured the friendly woman behind the counter, and walked out to find somewhere for the world’s fastest tent swap.

After unpacking on a low stone wall on the footpath outside, I got plenty of odd looks from passers-by as I stuffed my old tent into the too-small packaging, scrawled Lauren’s parents’ address on the front, and stuck everything back together with copious amounts of duct tape.

This was not the prettiest parcel that Royal Mail has ever delivered, but apparently it was effective: an intact, if still rather damp, tent arrived in London later that week.

Even with the addition of all those bags of jelly tots, my backpack felt a hell of a lot lighter as I rejoined the path. My thoughts now turned towards lunch, with what turned out to be perfect timing: not more than five minutes later, I passed a small building beside the beach and veered inside without a conscious thought.

I’m not entirely sure what to call The Hoxton Special: as well as being a cafe, it’s apparently also a place to get kitesurfing and paddleboard lessons and equipment. What I do know is that it served up the best dairy-free carrot cake I’ve had in my entire life, and a mean flat white to go with it. I’d go well out of my way to have them both again.

As if I wasn’t already on enough of a high from all that sugar deliciousness, the clouds parted as I walked further along the beach, just in time for my arrival at St Michael’s Mount. This famous castle on an island in the harbour is the highlight of today’s section, and it was far more impressive under blue skies and sunshine than the grey mizzle that had covered it all morning.

There’s a causeway from the mainland to the island, but it’s only usable around low tide. Small ferries usually run there the rest of the time, but not today: the strong winds and choppy seas meant that all boats were cancelled.

I’d had no intention of heading over there anyway, but judging by the disappointed looks on faces as I passed, many other people had. They’d just have to console themselves with exploring Marazion, the pretty village opposite the castle. Despite how touristy it was, I really liked Marazion; I’d like to come back and spend a few hours here in the future.

For now, though, I just followed Turnpike Road up a slight rise out of town, before a signpost pointed me onto a dirt track back towards the coast. Most maps suggested that the trail just heads straight down and along the coast here, but an unstable cliff had other ideas.

A half-mile detour later, I did manage to rejoin the coast at a small stony beach with pretty views back across the bay towards St Michael’s Mount. Other than a small inland detour at Trenow Cove, the path mostly just stayed beside the edge of the low cliffs for the next mile or so until I got to Perranuthnoe.

This looked like a lovely little spot, with a pretty beach and the Victoria Inn, apparently the oldest pub in Cornwall and one that was very much calling my name by this point. If there’d been a somewhere to pitch my tent right there, I’d have stopped for the night without a second thought.

In the end, the nearest campsite was just far enough along the path that once I got to the turn-off for it, I decided to keep going to Praa Sands instead.

This last three miles couldn’t have been more different to the rest of the day’s walking: not only was there more up and down, but I’d left the busy towns and paved trails far behind. The path was more overgrown inland and quite rugged along the coast, much more like the rest of my Coast Path experience than this morning’s urban wander.

As a result, it was easily my favourite section today. The waves churned and smashed on the rocks below as the wind whistled around me, but with the best weather of the day and hardly anybody else around, I loved every minute of it.

The views from Cudden Point were expansive and dramatic in both directions, and the little bays around Prussia Cove were nothing short of stunning. I was enjoying it so much that I felt almost sad to climb up one last headland and arrive above Praa Bay, although the long stretch of beach did look lovely in the afternoon sun.

Dropping down into the village, I suddenly realised that the campsite I’d thought was beside the beach was actually half a mile away, up (wait for it) a very steep hill. Sigh.

I’d expected a bit of fuss putting up my new tent for the first time, or at least free entertainment for anyone else who happened to be watching, but in the end it was really just a smaller, simpler version of the old one. I grew to love my cozy little shelter over the next month, but for now, I was just glad to see it standing upright.

Dinner that night was back in the village at The Welloe, a modern place that didn’t seem quite sure whether it was a bar or a restaurant, but was turning out damn fine pizzas either way. Washed down with a pint (ok, two pints) of cider, looking out over the ocean in the warmth of the evening sun through the window, I couldn’t have been happier.

Despite the changeable weather and uninspiring start, today had been a really good day!

Planning

Started at: Mousehole Camping (0.9 miles/1.5km off-trail)

Finished at: Higher Pentreath Campsite (0.5 miles/0.8km off-trail, up a hill)

Despite a somewhat brusque welcome from the owner, this ended up being a decent place to spend the night. Nice and quiet, there were only a few other people staying in the large camping field; most of the guests were on a powered pitch elsewhere on the site, in large tents and campervans.

Shower and toilet facilities were basic but fine (and free), and there was a laundry room alongside. It also had some kind of paid USB charging setup with a sign full of disclaimers that I took one look at and flatly refused to use.

The unpowered camping field is huge, but it’s on such a slope that you’re not really going to want to pitch anywhere except the top or bottom edges. On the upside (literally), the strip along the top is very well sheltered by a large hedge: it was windy when I arrived and got moreso overnight, but I barely felt it in the tent. Down by the shower block, it was a different story.

The only other comment I’d make is that you might want to be a bit careful coming down the slope when it’s wet: the bottom bit near the showers was quite muddy after it rained overnight, and I saw a guy slip over and end up with mud from top to toe. Not the start you want for your day!

You’ve basically got two choices for where to have dinner: the Welloe down in the village where I went, or the Coach and Horses up on the A394. The latter is twice as far away: if you decide to go there anyway, I’d suggest taking the public footpath from the back of the campsite rather than continuing up Pentreath Lane, to avoid walking along the A road.

My pitch cost £14 for the night.

Transport and Parking

Because you go through Penzance today, public transport options are noticeably better than usual.

If you’re starting from Mousehole, take the number 6 bus from where it starts outside the Old Coastguard Hotel; it then runs through Newlyn to Penzance bus station. From there, take the number 2 to Praa Sands: it also stops in Marazion.

Both routes operate every day. The 6 runs every half-hour during the day, hourly in the evenings and on Sundays, while the 2 has hourly service during the day, switching to every two hours in the evenings and on Sundays.

If you’re starting or ending your walk in Penzance and need to travel further afield, the trail runs directly past the train station. This is the end of the Cornish main line, and you can easily get to Plymouth, Cardiff, London, and elsewhere from here.

If you’re leaving a car somewhere, you have good choices there as well. At the start, there are three small carparks in Mousehole: have coins with you, since there’s minimal phone signal to use the parking apps and some of the machines don’t take cards either.

There’s a smallish long-stay parking lot in Newlyn, and two long-stay options right on the trail in Penzance: Harbour is the larger of the two. If you’re happy to walk an extra couple of hundred yards, however (and given what you’re doing today, I suspect you may be), park at Wellfields carpark instead. It’s much cheaper for all-day parking; just note that it’s coins or app-based payment only.

There are three long-stay carparks between Penzance and Marazion: the closer you get to St Michael’s Mount, the more expensive they become. The cheapest of the three is behind the beach in Long Rock.

Finally, there’s cheap all-day parking via an honesty box beside the beach in Perranuthnoe, and a couple of paid options almost beside each other in Praa Sands. Maggie’s Patch, behind The Welloe bar/restaurant, is the cheaper of the two.

Waymarking and Navigation

Because so much of today is an urban walk, the navigation challenges are a bit different to usual. Waymarking isn’t as good as out in the countryside, something that seems to be true for almost any long walk I do, but most of the time it’s easy to stay on the right route: the closest footpath to the ocean is the one you need.

That said, I accidentally took a wrong turn away from the water in Newlyn, and it would be easy to miss the point where you need to cross the road and walk through the Harbour carpark in Penzance as well.

It’s slightly tricky to stay on the proper trail when it turns briefly inland at Perranuthnoe, but after that you’re back on the coast on an obvious path all the way to Praa Sands.

I used AllTrails as my main navigation app for the entire South West Coast Path, and it worked well throughout. The Mousehole to Marazion section is here, while the rest of the day is covered here. The app is free to use, although I pay a couple of pounds a month for a subscription so I can download maps to my phone in advance.

Phone Service

Phone service was unusually good today, thanks to the proximity to major centres. I had O2 signal whenever I needed it from Mousehole all the way to the other side of Marazion, and at least some of the time after that as well. It wasn’t as good in the village in Praa Sands, but fine up in the campsite.

As a backup, I’d also paid a few pounds for a data eSIM from Instabridge that let me swap between all three UK networks, EE, O2, and Vodafone/Three. It worked really well as a fallback option all along the Coast Path: if I didn’t have service with my usual provider (O2), I’d just switch to another. As long as there were any mobile phone towers in range, I’d have service.

Facilities

Unsurprisingly given how close you are to civilisation today, finding food, drink, and toilets isn’t difficult. I had a decent breakfast at the Mousehole Deli & Kitchen; other places opened later, so this was the only option at the time and busy because of it.

Newlyn has several alternatives, from cafes that open reasonably early to fish and chip shops, pubs, and other options later in the day. Duke Street Cafe, the Swordfish Inn, and the Tolcarne Inn are essentially right on the path.

There are a few places to eat on the other side of the road as you walk up the promenade in Penzance, but the bulk of the cafes, pubs, and restaurants are clustered in the old part of town, beside or just back from the harbour and train station. Take your pick here; it’s one of the few places on this part of the walk with a range of cuisines.

As mentioned, I really liked my coffee and cake at The Hoxton Special, just past Longrock. There’s also the Mexico Inn, on the other side of the train tracks just before the post office I collected my tent from.

There’s the usual collection of places aimed at tourists in Marazion, selling things like fudge and icecream, but there are some pubs and cafes as well if you want a proper meal.

Leaving the towns and villages along Mount’s Bay, your options finally dry up after this. There’s a beach cafe and the pub in Perranuthnoe, and that’s about it until you get to The Welloe in Praa Sands. There you’ll also find SISU, a cafe just off the trail up Pengersick Lane.

Accommodation

What you gain in food and drink options by being near a major town, you lose somewhat in camping options, but it’s not as bad as it could be.

After leaving Mousehole, there’s the basic Trewarveneth Manor Farm Camping back behind Newlyn, and the seasonal Ponsandane campsite close to the trail on the outskirts of Penzance. Dove Meadows is the way to go if you want to stop in Marazion.

After that, there’s Beare’s Den, where I considered stopping for the night: it’s a little way past Perranuthnoe and slightly inland. In the end I stayed in Praa Sands, where Higher Pentreath Campsite is the only place in town to pitch a tent.

If you aren’t camping, of course, you have many choices of where to stay. Unsurprisingly, Penzance has dozens of good accommodation options, often at lower prices than what you’ll find in smaller villages. Whether you want a B&B, a traditional hotel, a room in a pub, or just an inexpensive homestay, you’ll find it here.

There are options in Newlyn as well, including the Swordfish Inn directly on the path, and if you’re happy to pay a bit more for the view, it’s hard to go past the Godolphin Hotel in Marazion that directly overlooks St Michael’s Mount.

Finally, the 12th-century Victoria Inn in Perranuthnoe has a few rooms available, as does the Coach and Horses, the pub that I mentioned behind Praa Sands: it’s relatively cheap, but is quite a long way off the path. At least you don’t have to go anywhere else for dinner, I guess!