Melissa Carne

St Mawes, Cornwall

saint mawes harbour and town in cornwall

St Mawes, Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, England

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. Todays post is all about St Mawes which is located on the south coast of Cornwall.

I have never visited St Mawes before but, it was actually on my 2019 Cornish Bucket List to take the river Fal ferry across to Falmouth or vice versa. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as we ran out of time however, we did get to have a good look around the town and sat down and had a cream tea, yum.

Location

Saint Mawes lies on the east bank of the Carrick Roads, a large waterway created after the Ice Age from an ancient valley which flooded. It is less than a mile away from Falmouth by boat but, due to the Fal estuary its 30 miles away by road.

History of saint mawes

Like Falmouth, St Mawes also has a castle built by Henry VIII to counter any invasion. The coastal fortress is very well preserved and is now owned by English Heritage. The town was once a busy fishing port, but the trade declined during the 20th century and it has now become a holiday destination.
saint mawes castle owned by english heritage in cornwall
pilchards cottage with blue door and shutters in saint mawes in cornwall
plants overlooking harbour at saint mawes in cornwall
retro shell garage at st mawes in cornwall

Water sports

St Mawes and the surrounding area is well known for its boating and yachting. St Mawes alone boasts 3 boatyards with numerous moorings and anchorages. However, an increase in leisure boat ownership has led to a waiting list for moorings. The local sailing clubs in St Mawes, Portscatho and Portloe are extremely active, arranging racing events and evening functions for locals and visitors alike. 

Car parking

If you’re visiting on a day trip to St Mawes I would highly recommend arriving early as we only saw one car park near the harbour and  it wasn’t extremely large in size. Also can I add, the ticket machine was one of the weirdest machines ever! I would highly recommend reading the instructions instead of trying to work it out like me.

Other posts

While you’re in the area I would highly recommend visiting Rosevine, I personally think that it is one of the prettiest places in Cornwall.

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you visit the coastal town soon. I would try and do it before the holidays, haha. If you wanted to see more of an uncut version of our day there, then check out my Cornwall highlights on my instagram.

Lots of love, Melissa x

fishing nets and the idle rocks at saint mawes in cornwall
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