Our Beautiful Area: Portscatho
Portscatho, The Roseland Peninsula, Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
Portscatho and Gerrans are like siamese twins, both in the same parish of St Gerrans, doing some things together and some apart. They share a church, surgery and village hall, but each has its own pub. These are the 17th century Plume of Feathers in Portscatho and the Standard in Gerrans, both well worth a visit.
Portscatho was, and still is to a small extent, a fishing village which also became the home of a number of merchant schooner captains. They often owned or part owned their ships which between voyages would lie in the sheltered anchorage at Percuil. Portscatho faces east over Gerrans Bay wth its prominent Gull Rock, where the German barque Hera was wrecked in 1914. For many years the Coastguard, with its life-saving rocket apparatus, had a presence in Portscatho. Today the National Coastwatch Institution maintain a lookout at Pedn Vadn point during the holiday season.
The former thatched cottage homes of fishermen and ship's crews now all have slate roofs and are kept in pristine condition, as are the larger former homes of sea captains. There is a small supermarket and, apart from the pub, some other refreshment establishments, and a few galleries. The main village event is the annual regatta with sailing and beach sports. The Roseland Music Society hold frequent high quality concerts.
A short distance north from Portscatho is the beautiful Porthcurnick Beach. Here there were some cottages which were completely demolished by a storm in the late 19th century. Further on is the hamlet of Rosevine and after another mile the hamlet of Curgurrell. This features the Iron Age Dingerein Castle and a conical field known as Round House. Between the two hamlets is Porthbean Beach.
For some fascinating historical detail of Portscatho see 'A History of The Parish of Gerrans' by Hilary Thompson.
For further information please visit: https://www.htiddy.co.uk/