Hugh Town Beach (Cornwall)

St Marys lifeboat station was established in 1837 and operates an all weather lifeboat. Station is open daily.

Porthcressa beach is a sandy beach located within Hugh Town on the Scilly Isles. It is the southern and sandiest of the two Hugh Town beaches. The water in Porthcressa Bay is a gentle slope and good for swimming and snorkelling. Facilities include promenade, toilets, cafe, no lifeguards.

An unfinished artillery fort, built above St Mary’s Pool harbour in 1552-53

Old Town Bay beach is a small crescent shaped beach overlooked by Old Town. Facilities include car parking, toilets, food, slipway, no lifeguards.

The Garrison peninsula above Porthcressa Beach at the rear of Hugh Town on St. Mary’s. Paths take you around the peninsula and you can well understand the strategic importance of the garrison. As you walk you will see the walls, various battery locations and the castle.

Bant’s Carn Burial Chamber and Halangy Down Ancient Village. The remains of an Iron Age village in a scenic location. With a Bronze Age burial mound, entrance passage and inner chamber.

Peninnis Lighthouse on St Mary’s Island in the Scilly Isles is a small automatic lighthouse consisting of a metal tower, the upper part painted white and the lower part and cupola painted black. This lighthouse was established in 1911 when it superseded the lighthouse on St Agnes which had been in operation since 1680.

Port Hellick Beach sits in a sheltered tidal inlet on St Mary’s south coast and the beach at low tide offers a wide expanse of sand and rocks. This is not really a location for sitting on the beach but offers a great natural landscape. A shingle bar provides a freshwater pool (Higher Moors and Porth Hellick Pool)  behind the beach that is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for the ″wide diversity of habitats with several rare and notable plant species″and making this an important stop-off for migrating and wintering birds. Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Admiral of the Fleet was temporarily buried on the beach after he was washed up here when his ship struck the rocks on 22nd October 1707, with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men. Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s body, along with the bodies of his two stepsons and that of Captain Edmund Loades, were washed up on Porth Hellick Cove the following day. The body was subsequently exhumed by order of Queen Anne and finally laid to rest in Westminster Abbey on 22nd December 1707. A small memorial marker marks the site where he was washed ashore. The beach has no facilities.

Carn Vean Tea Room is situated near Pelistry, offers teas and light refreshments along with outside seating in the garden.

Porth Hellick Down is an area of downland on the east side of the island of St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. Seven Scillonian entrance graves stand on the down, the largest is the Great Tomb which has a 12m diameter and a central burial chamber 3m long and 1m high. An unroofed passage 4.2m long leads into the chamber at an angle.

Innisidgen Lower and Upper Burial Chambers includes two Bronze Age communal burial cairns.

Pelistry Bay beach is located on the eastern coast of St Mary’s and offers a great sandy beach with interesting rocks. At low tide, you can access Toll’s island via a sandbar, where you can see the remains of Pellow’s Redoubt that dates to the English Civil War The beach has no facilities although you have a short walk to tea rooms.