"NEWLYN" a Newlyn Travel Page by angelis

I lived in Newlyn from December 2000 to June 2003. Set in the beautiful Mount's Bay Newlyn is the most important harbour in the south west in terms of the fishing industry. At the turn of the 20th century Newlyn was the first and foremost mackerel port in the country. Pilchards were also bought in here in great number and there is a Pilchard Works still in Newlyn that is open to the public.

Up until about 9 o'clock in the morning catches of fish are bought in and auctioned off at the fish market. Buyers come from shops and restaurants all over the locality as well as from further up country. Rick Stein, a British TV chef famous for his seafood dishes, owns a restaurant in nearby Padstow and can be seen here some mornings.
It is well worth taking a walk here in the early hours just to see the freshness and variety of seafood available. Watch as the fisherman operate pulleys to bring up blue tubs of crab and lobster, bream, shellfish and gleaming multi-coloured mackerel. I walk my 6 year old son to school through here most days and he has been delighted to find huge grey or blue sharks and rays with a wingspan bigger than he is.
If you come later and catch a late boat unloading, you can sometimes persuade the fishermen to sell you the odd crab or fish for a knock down price.

In the old days this was the original Harbour and the place where much of Newlyn's business was conducted. The Old Harbour was one of few buildings left standing when Spaniards burned the area in the 1500's.
Before the Cliff Road was built the town was split in two during high tide and you had a long uphill walk to pass from West Newlyn to East Newlyn. The road was built to facilitate the movement of stone from Penlee quarry.

The New Harbour was built in the 1880's with the New Pier added in 1980. It encloses an area of about 40 acres and supports 150 boats..it can hold up to 200.
Newlyn is known as a safe harbour as it has a lifeboat station and is the first port of call for a ship in distress or if storms blow up.

Newlyn has two beaches. As you enter the town from the direction of Penzance is the area known as Newlyn Green. Although it doesn't look promising at high tide, when the tide is out a beautiful stretch of sand is exposed with clusters of rock for the kids to search for crabs and shellfish. This beach makes a nice respite from the busy, often overcrowded Marazion beach.

On the Mousehole side of Newlyn the beach is very stony and after a big storm littered with seaweed and debris.
In an attempt to repair the seabreak concrete has been poured over the rocks which is now cracking and slipping as the sea erodes it. Doesn't sound very attractive I know but it is a nice place to stop for a beer if you find a sunny rock as few people venture down here. Views across Mount's Bay are worth it.

When Penlee Quarry was in use a rail track ran across here next to the cycle path. You can still find parts of it here and there. The wildness of the area means it has so far not attracted development and it makes for a good ramble and the kids can run around with no worries about traffic.

In the two years we lived here we frequently saw a young seal fishing for his supper and rolling in the surf.