Port Isaac or Port Wenn, Cornwall - Completely Charming By Either Name

 One of my main aims for my visit to Cornwall was to see tiny, picturesque, fishing villages because I just love them where ever they are.   On our travels around Cornwall we had visited several (I have written about these in earlier blog posts)  Charming and all as they were I have to admit it was love at first sight when I arrived in Port Isaac and found exactly the Cornish village I'd hoped for.

 

Above and below: views from opposite sides of the bay.  Doc Martin's house centre right and the Large's fictitious restauraunt lower centre (top photo)

Port Isaac dates from the middle ages with the current village centre dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. As a designated conservation area with 90 listed buildings and a population of only 700+ it is a joy to wander its quiet, narrow lanes and alleys.   It has always been a fishing village and still is today with a fish market operating right on the water's edge offering fresh fish, crab and lobster for sale.

Below: The quiet main street in the early morning

            

Our good fortune was to arrive early in the morning when few people were around so we had the streets almost to ourselves.  As a very well known film location - TV  series, Doc Martin, where it goes by the fictitious name of Port Wenn, and the movie, The Fishermen's Friends, one of many, the quaint streets and beauty of the village draws in  location spotters and movie fans.  This has brought fortune to the village but can also be rather tiresome for residents when hordes of tourists arrive clogging up the streets.  Incidentally, The Fishermen's Friends was based on a local group of singers, specialising in sea shanties and who have achieved wide acclaim.

The chemist's in Doc Martin. It is actually an ice cream shop - filming 
took place both inside and out. Moveable shelves easily transformed it for filming

Doc Martin's Aunt's house

Squeezee Belly Lane. In the Guinness Book of
records as the world's narrowest lane. Legend
has it that smugglers used it as an escape route
from the tax man.

Our group spent some time wandering the village admiring the tiny, jumbled, white washed cottages, the fishing harbour and the picturesque cray pots stacked on the beach. Later we gathered at a shop with the delightful name of 'May Contain Nuts' to meet our guide, Mike,  who took us on a walking tour of the village.  He was an excellent guide, who  had worked as an extra on Doc Martin, and who plied us with inside stories and anecdotes from the show all the while pointing out the various film locations. But he also entertained us with fascinating stories from the past about ship wrecks, the brave life boaters of the village, smugglers and fishing. He also took us to places in the village that many tourists miss or overlook.  It was a great tour and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the village.

Our guide outside Doc Martin's home and surgery.  Inside shots were filmed elsewhere.

Very old building by the boat harbour. 
Deemed architecturally significant

All too soon our visit to Port Isaac came to an end.  I could have stayed there for days. The idea of renting a cottage for a week ( for Doc Martin fans you can rent his house which is now a holiday home) to enjoy the coastal walks and the life of the village would be a dream that is unlikely to come true nevertheless I will always remember my visit very fondly.  Port Isaac is enchanting, the Cornwall of my dreams.

As an aside, tourism both enriches and destroys villages.  A lot of the long term residents are finding many of the cottages are now being bought as holiday homes for people from London and other places.  This pushes the prices up making it hard for the residents and their families to remain in the area. The holiday home owners arrive in huge four wheel drives  which clog up the narrow streets and make life difficult for everyone. As a tourist I tried to do my bit for the local economy by making a few purchases but it is a real dilemma for tourists; do you visit and help the local economy or do you leave the village a bit poorer but more peaceful.  The tyranny of being beautiful, I guess.

If you do visit there are a number of lovely places to eat and some excellent craft shops to explore.

Polperro - A Cornish village with a Smuggling Past

 One of the main things that attracted me to Cornwall was the idea of visiting the little fishing villages which tumble down hillsides and open out to the sea.  I love the sea and I love exploring tiny old villages. If you enjoy these things too you will be spoilt for choice in Cornwall.  There is so much to love about this beautiful county and we had already visited some wonderful places but  I was pretty excited when we arrived in Polperro, the first fishing village on my tour.

A great thing about Polperro is that it is carless, apart from the occasional delivery vehicle.  Vehicles must be parked at a carpark up the hill before a walk of about 750 metres down into the village. What joy - no traffic to dodge, no noise, no fumes, simply the wheeling calls of seagulls, the bubbling of the roadside stream and the gentle conversations of passers by.

Note: the hill is quite steep so it is not really suitable if you have mobility issues. 

Dating from the 14th century the village consists of narrow winding lanes and whitewashed cottages garlanded with colourful hanging baskets and fishing floats. But for the tourists it attracts, and the souvenir shops, it is as if time has stood still.  The beating heart of the village is the still busy fishing port, where fishermen keep their boats before heading out to sea to catch several varieties of fish, the main one being the ever popular pilchard. 

Left: Hanging baskets and fishing floats

Right: The Shell House decorated in the 1930s by a retired sailor

In the 18th century Polperro became infamous as a major smuggling centre.  At the time high governmental  taxes meant that the fishermen could not afford to buy even basic goods so  smuggling for extra income seemed like a good idea. They smuggled tobacco, brandy and gin which they on sold cheaply to help with their weekly budget.  When John Wesley visited the village in 1762 he reported that all the locals were involved in smuggling.  Today you can visit the Polperro Heritage Museum of Smuggling and Fishing to learn more.

The sheltered cove of Polperro - entry point for smugglers back in the day

As for me I just loved wandering the tiny lanes, admiring the cottages, peering in the windows of the antique shops and the ancient taverns and finally arriving down at the bay where the fishing boats head out to sea through a narrow, sheltered opening.  Unfortunately the tide was out during our visit so we didn't get the full glory of the boat harbour at its best. Nevertheless it was good enough for me.

The tide's out.

On my stroll back through the village to the carpark I met up with some fellow travelers and we sat and drank cool beer in the shady garden of the beautiful 18th century Crumplehorn Inn and Mill before heading to the bus.

Polperro didn't disappoint, it was just how I imagined a Cornish fishing village to be and I couldn't wait to see more.

We carried on to the tiny hamlet of Charlestown, famous as  a film location for a number of films and TV programmes, including The Onedin Line, which I loved. It was a brief visit and it was interesting to see the village as it is today, very different from the staged set I was familiar with on TV.

Above and below: The tiny hamlet of Charestown. The small stone building far right in the bottom photo is familiar from The Onedin Line