A line of dark rock stacks standing on a wide sandy beach on the north Cornwall coast, with a steep stair down the cliff
Open accesson open access land, where the right to roam applies
The big draw here is the view from the cliff top — a line of dark rock stacks standing out of the sand on a wide north Cornwall beach, roughly halfway between Newquay and Padstow. The stacks and the cliffs above them are cared for by the National Trust. A steep staircase was cut into the rock down to the beach at Bedruthan Steps, but rockfalls closed it in 2019 and it has stayed shut since. The beach is no place to swim in any case, as it is covered completely at high tide, the currents are dangerous, and there is no lifeguard. Victorian visitors were told the stacks were the stepping stones of a giant called Bedruthan, which is a good story and almost certainly a made-up one. The clifftop is a site of special scientific interest (an SSSI, a protected wildlife site), and the South West Coast Path runs right along it, so the beach is easy to enjoy from above even if you never go down.
