Par to Charlestown

We took the train to Par, then walked from the railway station down to the coast path.  The first part of this walk was through Par village then the industrial area, with the china clay port to one side and not very attractive.  But once we had left Par it was much more scenic.

As soon as we had left the industrial area we came to a lovely isolated beach where we stopped for lunch.

Looking back to Par Beach

We then walked along low cliffs by the side of a golf course.  At times the path had to go into the golf course because of cliff  slips.  Eventually we could see Carlyon Bay below, but we did not go down to the beach.  We continued on walk across green fields.  There were some gentle ups and downs, but nothing severe, it was an easy walk compared to others on the South West Coast Path.

As we approached Charlestown we came to a Coastwatch station.  The volunteer manning this explained about their work.  There was a wonderful view of all St Austell Bay from this hut.

Carlyon Bay from Coastwatch Station

As we walked down to Charlestown harbour we saw how busy it was.  We realised that this was because filming was taking place for Poldark.  We spent a pleasant hour wandering around the craft shops and art galleries in the village and eating ice cream while sitting in the sun.  It seemed a very nice village.  We then walked up to the bus stop and caught the bus to St Austell railway station for the journey home.