BEST PLACES TO WATCH STORMS IN CORNWALL IN 2024! SCROLL DOWN FOR OUR CHOICE OF THE TOP CORNWALL STORM WATCHING HOTSPOTS.
Cornwall may be most famous for scenes of summer sunshine serenity, but come Autumn and the time that the leaves start to fall. For many locals and indeed for many photographers Cornwall’s storm season is the most exciting and thrilling time of year. The seascape comes alive with moving mountains of water which bear down on the coastline. With over 400 miles of coastline and with nooks and crannies facing every which way, come winter there’s barely an inch of Cornwall’s jagged granite finger that doesn’t get battered by Mother Nature’s fury at some point.
When is the best time of year to watch storms in Cornwall? From the start of Autumn through Winter and even into early Spring wild weather can bear down on Cornwall. And where’s the best place to watch storms? Well we reckon you need to be somewhere where you can see the ocean’s rage meet the immovable object of the Cornish land from on high. So we’ve picked 8 of our top picks for the best places to watch storms. All are on the coast and are chosen for their drama and frequency to be beaten by Cornwall’s wild weather.
If you are heading to the coast please heed the RNLI‘s advice to keep to paths, keep an eye on the weather forecast and keep your phone charged and with you. We’d also add that if you are going to waterside areas to storm watch then leave plenty of room between yourself and the sea to ensure you’re not caught out by rogue waves! Stay safe and enjoy!
Perhaps the Duchy’s most romantic storm setting. There’s something about seeing huge waves battering the exposed 1840’s beam engines. The imagery makes us hark back to a seemingly gritty era of industrial endeavour and nowhere epitomises the precarious nature of Cornwall’s mining past quite like Botallack. Perched on the cliffs of the Pendeen Peninsula just along the coast from Cape Cornwall, Levant and Wheal Coates between St Ives and Penzance, its worth reflecting in days gone by that there’s would’ve been miners working nearly a mile out to sea under those raging waves.
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Said to be named after the giant, Bedruthan who used rugged north Cornwall’s famous sea stacks to make his way across the water. The outcrops provide an awesome spectacle when being beaten by giant waves rolling into the coast near Newquay. Owned by the National Trust, storm watchers can watch the waves from the high cliffs surrounding the bay, or if tides permit, walk down the 140 steps to the beach to enjoy the action.
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Other than that famous sign, if there’s one thing that brings the crowd’s to England’s most westerly point it’s a storm. There’s something about watching storms here with the knowledge of the vastness of the ocean out in front of you. Visible from the point Longships Lighthouse acts as a focal point for the action with big storms providing waves that often submerge the structure and the jagged submerged rocks that surround it.
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Mullion’s pint sized harbour takes a real beasting during storm season. Snuggled into the relative safety of a natural cove on the Lizard Peninsula’s exposed western coastline, the National Trust managed harbour was built in the 1890’s to shelter a small fishing fleet from powerful westerly storms. When bigger storms arrive waves can sometimes break over the harbour wall sending the pint sized harbour into tumult. Surrounded by high cliffs there are plenty of spots to watch the action in safety.
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Quite simply Cornwall’s storm watching capital. When the waves are huge here you’ll find photographers perched along the waterfront in front of the old lifeboat station on the western edge of the harbour to capture the waves beating down on the harbour’s jetty before crashing into the sea walls in front of the much photographed church and sea wall. Nature’s fury at its most devastatingly beautiful.
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Once one of Cornwall’s most important ports that serviced the mining industry around Redruth and Camborne, Portreath has an equally colourful history with wild north Cornish weather and has become a hotspot for winter storm watchers. The focal points are Gul rock which sits out in the bay and The ‘Monkey Hut’ which is perched on the end of Portreath’s famous jetty. The was originally erected in the harbour’s nineteenth century heyday to provide shelter for people to guide boats into port. Demonstrating its oft battered status it finally succumbed to the ocean and had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed by a once in a generation storm in 2014.
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Come winter the village of Sennen becomes submerged by storm drama. The harbour in front of the village is frequently covered over by frothing waves which make the thought of launching a lifeboat from Sennen’s RNLI station seem precarious to say the least. The village looks well protected at the southern end by the point and high cliffs that shelter the village. But if the waves are big enough you can hear swells creaking towards the land and exploding hundreds of feet into the air to send sea spray over the houses. Epic stuff indeed!
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When storms are ripping through the north coast near Polzeath and Padstow the exposed Rumps and Pentire Point is the place to watch nature’s fury batter the exposed coastline. Characterised by high cliffs and rocky outcrops, its a great place to see and feel the full force of the weather.
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