Porthloo

Porthloo

Porthloo beach
Porthloo
 Porthloo shown within Isles of Scilly
OS grid referenceSV909114
Civil parishSt Mary's
Unitary authorityIsles of Scilly
Ceremonial countyCornwall
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town ISLES OF SCILLY
Postcode district TR21
Dialling code 01720
Police Devon and Cornwall
Fire Isles of Scilly
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK ParliamentSt Ives
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall

Coordinates: 49°55′23″N 6°18′27″W / 49.9231°N 6.3076°W / 49.9231; -6.3076

Porthloo (sometimes spelled and often pronounced Porthlow, (Cornish: Porth Logh, 'cove of the deep water inlet')) is a coastal settlement on the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, England. It is situated about half a mile northeast of Hugh Town and is a popular tourist spot with a number of guest houses, a restaurant, several gift shops and art galleries.

The only golf club on the Isles of Scilly is situated just to the north of Porthloo. The course consists of nine holes, each with two tees. The club was founded in 1904 and the course and clubhouse are open to visitors.[1]

Beach

Porthloo Beach faces west - there are two tidal islets called Taylor's Island and Newford Island which are to the north and south of the beach respectively. At the top of the beach is a small remnant sand dune system with the grassy area behind used for boat standing and repairs. Due to the disturbance hairy buttercup (Ranunculus sardous), along with other arable weeds appear here in one of its few sites on Scilly, and the only known site for wall–rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria) in the Isles of Scilly is just to the south.[2] Porthloo is within an Area of Outstanding Beauty, is a Geological Conservation Review site and was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1996. The 0.66 hectares (1.6 acres) site is notified for a succession of Quaternary sediments listed below with youngest at the top of the list:

Boat yard

The Duchy of Cornwall runs a "boat park" at Porthloo, providing ground storage of boats, including ones too large for storing on-land elsewhere on St Mary's.[4] There is a wide slipway leading across the beach, partially sheltered by Newford Island, which is used (in addition to the boat park) by landing barges, loading items which the St Mary's Harbour quay (at Hugh Town) cannot handle, such as large vehicles and machinery. There are boat maintenance sheds adjacent to the slipway.

In television

The postbox at Porthloo Terrace was the starting point in a Top Gear challenge to race the Royal Mail's delivery of a letter to Orkney.[5]

References

  1. Isles of Scilly Golf Club
  2. Parslow, Rosemary (2007). The Isles of Scilly. London: HarperCollins.
  3. "Porthloo" (PDF). Natural England. 1996. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  4. St Mary's Harbour (Duchy of Cornwall) Porthloo Boat Park
  5. Top Gear: series 13, episode 4

Media related to Porthloo at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 1/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.