Penzance Bay Live Cam

• Harbour Bay

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Port in the Penwith district of Cornwall

West Cornwall offers a variety of quality beaches and coves from busy family beaches and popular watersports venues to, at the other extreme, tucked away and quiet suntraps beneath sturdy granite cliffs. Along 50 miles of coastline all within easy reach from Penzance, there are the gorgeous open miles of silky white and glowing golden sands of Marazion, Sennen, St Ives, and Hayle as well as the smaller crescents in the coves like Porthcurno and Carbis Bay.

You can relax on golden, sun-soaked sands at Sennen, Porthcurno and St. Ives, with sparkling, crystal clear water foaming on to the shoreline. If watersports appeal then you can ride the rolling Atlantic swells with surfboard, bodyboard or sailboard on the famous surf beaches of Gwenver at Sennen and Porthmeor at St. Ives. For wide-open spaces you can sample the long, sweeping expanse of Hayle Towans' beaches and for families with very small children the ideal beaches are Marazion on Mount's Bay, Porthminster at St. Ives, and Carbis Bay.

Lighthouses - The Trinity House National Lighthouse Centre in Penzance has probably the largest and finest collection of lighthouse equipment in the world. In this unique facility alongside Penzance Harbour are housed massive lighthouse 'optics' navigation buoys, models of light vessels and of ships and numerous other navigational items. An audio-visual theatre brings to life the exciting world of seagoing and there is a full-sized replica lighthouse room.

Messages Beneath The Sea - The Porthcurno Valley ends at one of the finest beaches in Britain. But the valley also has a unique facility in its Museum of Submarine Telegraphy. Porthcurno's association with world-wide submarine cable communication goes back to 1870 when the first cable was brought ashore at Porthcurno Beach. Now the valley's World War II underground cable station has been turned into a museum containing an outstanding and unique collection of cable telegraphy equipment and memorabilia.

The Cornwall Geological Museum - The Geological Museum is located in the west wing of St. John's Hall in Penzance's Alverton Street. The museum unravels the geological secrets of the planet and reflects West Cornwall's mineral importance through its outstanding and colourful collections. There is a gift shop at the museum which offers a wide range of unusual gifts including carved stones, decorative minerals, jewellery, books, maps and postcards.

The Story Of Fishing - The Pilchard Works at Newlyn is a working fish museum, the last salt processing pilchard factory in the country. Once, pilchards were the mainstay of the Cornish fishing fleet and millions of salted fish were sent to Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Today, pilchards are still packed in wooden boxes and casks for the same Italian family that first bought fish from Cornwall in 1905. In traditionally restored buildings, the visitor can trace the fascinating story of Cornwall's fishing industry, see working pilchard presses in action and view examples of elegant Newlyn copper work.

Penzance Maritime Museum - Located in the heart of Penzance is the Maritime Museum, which is home to a great variety of nautical artifacts - most of which have been recovered from shipwrecks under the seas around the coast of Cornwall by local divers. The interior of the museum has been constructed to represent an 18th century Man-of-War complete with cannons and many examples of the contents and way of life of the sailor of that period.

The Heart Of The Country - Zennor's Wayside Museum has delighted holidaymakers for many years. The museum lies on the north coast of the Land's End Peninsula at the very heart of West Cornwall's most ancient landscape. The museum was founded in 1935 and occupies the site of a restored millhouse. The museum contains a marvellous variety of traditional implements and artefacts and its imaginative displays tell the story of Old Cornwall from 3000BC to the 1930s.

Magnificent Gardens - Trengwainton Gardens near Madron, maintained by the National Trust, are an oasis where vivid magnolias delight the eye. Seeds brought from Burma and Assam have created an outstanding rhododendron collection. There are also displays of exotic shrubs and flowers from New Zealand, China, Australia, North America, Japan and the Himalayas and more on West Cornwall Gardens.

The Cry Of A Bird - The Mousehole Wild Bird Hospital and Sanctuary is known the world over as a unique institution which for many years has cared for a multitude of wounded, sick and damaged birds. The aim of the Sanctuary is to return recovered 'patients' to the Cornish skies. Visitors are welcomed at this remarkable place, perched high above the sea, where devoted carers work to repair some of the damage that is all too often caused by mankind's carelessness.

A Trip To Paradise - Paradise Park at Hayle is renowned world-wide for its remarkable collection of exotic birds and its conservation work. The park has numerous fascinating species and is the location of the World Parrot Trust. It is also home to the Cornish Otter Sanctuary and a Special Breeds farm. There are flight displays by majestic birds of prey and for young children there are donkey rides and a miniature railway. A souvenir shop, a cafe and a friendly pub round off the Paradise Park experience.

Butterfly World - In the small village of Leedstown, to the east of Penzance, is Butterfly World - a tropical butterfly house where magnificent butterflies fly free amongst tropical plants and flowers. Falconry displays take place three times daily together with an opportunity to stroke the birds. Also to be seen are snakes, spiders and lizards.

St Ives Bay

The spectacular St.Ives Bay is fringed by some of the finest holiday beaches in Europe, all of them noted for their crystal-clear seas, rolling surf and golden sand. The focus of the bay is the town of St.Ives, steeped in the Cornish traditions of fishing and sea-going and known world-wide as an art colony.

Adjoining St.Ives is the resort of Carbis Bay and its splendid beach. East of Carbis Bay is the mouth of the Hayle Estuary flanked on either side by vast sweeps of golden sand. The estuary leads to the old Cornish port of Hayle with its wealth of industrial heritage. Hayle's exhilarating beaches run for three miles to Godrevy Point, where an island lighthouse marks the eastern edge of St Ives Bay.

A mere glimpse of the golden beaches and shining seas of St.Ives and the first-time visitor is captivated for life. This is one of Britain's most famous resorts, unmatched for its idyllic combination of sand, sea and sun, its harbourside enclaves of narrow, cobbled lanes and flower-filled courtyards, all features which underpin the town's international reputation in the world of Art.

The heart of St.Ives is its harbour, where working fishing boats maintain the town's seagoing traditions and where low tide reveals yet another expanse of shining sand. On the harbourside is the local lifeboat station, another stirring symbol of the town's heritage and of its continuing service to seagoers.

St.Ives' artistic traditions are enshrined in the stunning St.Ives Tate Gallery above Porthmeor Beach. Numerous other galleries add to the general quality and pleasure of the St.Ives artistic experience, as does the town's September Festival, a two-week annual celebration of Arts and Music.

The approach by train to St.Ives leads through Lelant and Carbis Bay along an exquisite coastline of sand dunes and steep, wooded cliffs. A Park-and-Ride facility operates from Lelant Saltings, allowing visitors to enjoy both journey and town in the most relaxed way possible.

Carbis Bay beach is wide and sheltered and has soft, golden sand. It is an ideal beach for families with young children while water-skiing, parascending and windsurfing can be enjoyed by the more adventurous.

The Lelant area is spread out between the main road and the Hayle Estuary. Lelant's handsome Lelant church stands on grass-covered sand dunes, adjacent to a golf links and above the huge tidal expanse of Porth Kidney sands at the mouth of the Hayle River.

The port town of Hayle has a great tradition of engineering and commerce in an environment that includes a stunning coastline of golden beaches. During the 19th century, Hayle was a powerhouse of Cornish industry and today the town's fascinating industrial heritage is being enjoyed by visitors.

At its inner end the estuary has a huge area of mud flats which are exceptional bird-watching venues. The Hayle area is popular as a self-catering holiday venue and the town's many shops and facilities are only a short walk from the beaches. Lifeguards patrol the beaches during the summer months and, as well as swimming, surfing and sunbathing, Hayle's sands are ideal for the fast-growing sport of landspeed sailing, and last year hosted the World Wave Ski Championships.