Watching Old Dane
Fistral Beach
PoE 20 Fistral Beach loop a 5.5 miles
PoE 20 Fistral Beach loop b 3 miles
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Called Towan Blystra until a new quay was built in 1439, Newquay is now famed for its surf and its 11 beaches.
PoE20 starts at the Towan end of Fistral Beach. It is the most urban eight in the series, following the South West Coast Path through the main shopping street of Newquay and passing the local zoo.
With a history stretching back to the Iron Age, Newquay has much of interest to offer. The Barrowfields, for example, are not just earthern humps in a cliff top field, but 3500 year old burial mounds of Ancient Celtic Chiefs. Tram lines laid during the reign of Queen Victoria to transport kaolin from Fowey are still partially extant.
PoE20b is more tranquil than its nearest neightbour. It crosses the Gannel by a bridge that disappears at high tide, and returns to the northern bank by a ferry that operates only when the lower bridge sinks in a tidal flood.
This eight moves from hubbub to tranquility and returns to Towan, on the threshold of the two.