On Boxing Day we had an amazing family walk from Holywell Bay to Polly Joke over The Kelseys. It was a very mild day for late December and felt very warm at some points in the sunshine. The kids even had their shoes and coats off for most of the walk!
We took this route to find a seal cove near Polly Joke. We also hadn’t taken the coastal path to the right of Holywell yet, so it was a new adventure for us.
Boxing Day walk from Holywell Bay, over The Kelseys, to the seals at Polly Joke
We started on Holywell Beach, walking across the whole beach. You can’t tell here but lots of other people had the same idea for a Boxing Day walk at Holywell!
We’ve been to Holywell several times since moving to Newquay in September and the car park is virtually empty every time, however, this day the car park was nearly full just like in the summer!A rare picture of me on my travel blog. As you’ve probably noticed, nearly all my photos are of the locations we visit and of my husband Ben and the children as I’m the one taking the photos! I don’t really like my face so I don’t mind!!Ben and Bella had walked along the sand dunes whilst me and Reuben walked along the beach. Here Reuben is getting ready to climb the sand dunes to meet them before we had over The Kelseys to follow the coast path from Holywell to Porth Joke. It was so warm he took his shoes and socks off and rolled up his trousers!Great views looking back across Holywell from the sand dunes!The sand dunes look like they go on forever in this photo!According to the National Trust “The Kelseys consist of three enclosures called Inner, Middle and Outer Kelseys, separated by ancient walls. They were of sufficient importance to be shown on the first edition one inch Ordnance Survey map (c1809)” The Kelseys are in between Holywell and Porth Joke and the coastal path goes through them.Bella joins Reuben in taking her shoes off!We take a slight detour off the main coastal path to take a closer look at The Chick, a small rocky island. We didn’t see any here, but apparently, at low tide, you can sometimes see grey seals and dolphins.Bella stops for a breather before we continue on our walk.So cute as they walk along, holding hands getting along and chatting. The kids are six and nine now so there won’t be many more years left of this!We reach the seals at a secluded cove next to Porth Joke. We see around 35 to 40 seals today!
A bit windy, but here are the seals!So amazing to see. Check out my other Porth Joke seal spotting post as we saw over 80 seals the next time we visited!Time to walk back to Holywell to get the car, but not before taking a quick snap of Newquay, our home, in the distance.Windy!Holywell Bay, still looking great in the sunshine in December!A quick play on the sand dunes before we head home. The sand dunes are amazing at Holywell Beach in Cornwall – we love sliding down them when we have our bodyboards with us!
Both Holywell and Porth Joke (Polly Joke) are National Trust locations. If you have a membership then you can park for free.
If you are interested in a National Trust membership then you can save on an annual membership by getting cash back. Use my link to sign up to TopCashback and see the latest saving at National Trust here: https://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/victoriasully/national-trust
It’s incredible how many there can be! We’ve seen other photos with around double what we saw. Quite amazing 🙂
Beautiful photos! It looks like a wonderful place to spend a day.