Ooh, I’ve found another favourite beach in Cornwall – Crantock Beach!
A beautiful vast beach along the River Gannel and its estuary out to sea. It’s a huge sandy beach which is ginormous when it’s low tide. At high tide the beach separates into two with tall, steep sand dunes taking over and looking so impressive.
We spent a day exploring Crantock Beach with the children and also viewing it from Pentire Headland in the late afternoon.
Crantock beach is managed by National Trust and we were surprised to find a parking space at 10am in the summer holidays and even more surprised at how quiet the beach was.
If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the central Newquay beaches then Crantock is a must.
Here are my photos for the day exploring Crantock Beach and Pentire Headland.
Crantock Beach and Pentire Headland family travel photos
Our first view of Crantock beach after parking in the National Trust carpark and climbing a sand dune.The River Gannel joins the sea at Crantock in Cornwall. This is low tide along the river side of the beach.Time to get down the sand dune and on to the beach! It was super windy and we set up our tent (we take a two man popup tent) and had our picnic in the tent as it was so windy, sand was blowing everywhere!After we ate, we packed up the tent and other bits and bobs for a walk along the beach. It was just too windy to stay sat by the River Gannel side of the beach. I gave in this holiday and let Reuben spend some of his pocket money on a plastic water gun. He’s been asking for one for months and if you read our last holiday blog post to Cornwall I wouldn’t let him have one. Hopefully it will last and won’t break. The kids spent ages drawing snails and leaves in the wet sand with a spade. Ben left us and wandered up the cliffs for some great views.Ben joins us again and we go to see the rock pools! Even though it’s the summer holidays, Crantock was surprisingly quiet this day.A crab and three fish! Can you see them? We saw several largish crabs in this rockpool, fighting each other and wobbling about! There were lots of fish too. These are the largest crabs we have seen in the wild so far. We found some crab skeletons on the beach, but much smaller. It was amazing to see such large crabs in their natural habitat. Cool walkway through the large rocks.I really love all the large rocks on beaches and being able to walk through them. They feel so powerful.Off to the sand dunes on the beach side of Crantock beach.Super high sand dunes with kids sliding down on their body boards! You don’t need snow in Cornwall!A steep climb to the top of the sand dunes at Crantock. A great workout for the legs!Stopping for a rest. The kids kept sliding back down and starting again!Sand dune smiles 🙂 Reuben slides down on his bottom!So steep!Crantock beach from the top of a sand dune.Ben taking in the views at Crantock.Bella searching for tiny shells on the sand dune.I found a crab claw at Crantock!Testing out my portrait skills on Ben!Lots of sand in Reuben’s shoe!Lovely Crantock in Cornwall.Perfect Crantock.The first time I’ve ever seen a burnet moth.Such a pretty moth with its spots.Burnet moths were all over the wildflowers on the sand dunes behind the beach at Crantock.Dinner time! After a day on Crantock beach exploring the beach, river, sand dunes and rock pools, we drove to Pentire Headland for a different view of Crantock. We stopped for dinner in the carpark on the headland first.Tomato pasta faces!Cheese!What a great view of Crantock from Pentire Headland. It’s now high tide and the beach has separated into two.We’ll be back to Crantock for sure – such a great spot.From the other side of Pentire Headland are views to the rest of Newquay and the ever popular Fistral beach.The kids loved exploring Pentire Headland and taking the many paths between the wildflowers.Posing under a rock for a great photo 🙂Pentire Headland, CornwallSiblings, getting along nicely!We loved Pentire Headland. Amazing views, lots of wildlife and wildflowers, perfect for a picnic, walking and talking and you can also climb down to the rocks and explore rock pools.Bella 🙂Fashion pose!You can climb on the rocks from Pentire Headland and explore the sea. We saw a large seal from here, but it disappeared by the time we got our cameras out.Amazing landscape on the rocks at Pentire Headland, Newquay, Corwall.
Find out more about Crantock Beach and Pentire Headland
Check out these resources to learn more about Crantock Beach and Pentire Headland in Newquay, Cornwall.
Crantock beach looks absolutely magical, I have seen so many beautiful pictures of Cornwall and would love to visit in the future.
The UK has so many stunning locations, we are lucky.
Your pictures are beautiful, thank you for sharing.
Beautiful pictures, It’s lovey to see you all enjoying yourself this Summer. We are free to enjoy these stunning beaches.
I would love to visit Cornwall it looks like such a magnificent place, clear blue water and so clean looking.
The pictures are lovely, such a beautiful place. I’ve never visited before but would love to have a holiday here.
What an incredible place for holidaying with no quarantining and traffic light system!
Crantock beach looks absolutely magical, I have seen so many beautiful pictures of Cornwall and would love to visit in the future.
The UK has so many stunning locations, we are lucky.
Your pictures are beautiful, thank you for sharing.
Beautiful pictures, It’s lovey to see you all enjoying yourself this Summer. We are free to enjoy these stunning beaches.
I would love to visit Cornwall it looks like such a magnificent place, clear blue water and so clean looking.
This looks like such a lovely place to visit. It has been a while since I last went on holiday; hopefully I will be able to go soon.
That beach looks amazing, the water looks so beautiful and blue . I miss visiting the beach
It’s was so cool!
What a gorgeous place! Sand and rockpools and wildlife and wonderful views… what more could anyone ask from a day at the coast? Beautiful.
A really lovely place. Looks like you all had alot of fun.
Beautiful photos!