Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall, built along a run of clifftop beaches with the Atlantic in front of it. In Kernewek it is Tewynblustri. It began as a small fishing village and harbour, became a seaside resort when the railway reached it in the nineteenth century, and grew into a centre for surfing in Britain, with Fistral Beach on the western side at the heart of that reputation.
Surf and sand
Fistral and the town's other beaches, among them Towan, Great Western and Tolcarne, catch different slants of the same swell. In summer the streets fill with lessons, boards and wetsuits; in winter the water belongs to the hardy. Each August the town stages Boardmasters, a surf competition and music festival, which fills the cliffs above Fistral and Watergate Bay.
The town
The old harbour sits below the town centre, and the beaches carry on in both directions from it. In the middle of the harbour stands Towan Island, a small rock with a house on top, reached by a suspension footbridge from the mainland. The South West Coast Path runs through the town, along the clifftops between one beach and the next.
Around the town
To the south, the river Gannel separates Newquay from the village of Crantock, and its estuary empties to sand at low tide. A few miles east lies Cornwall Airport Newquay, the county's main airport, which connects Cornwall with the rest of the country by air.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newquay
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall_Airport_Newquay
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Gannel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardmasters
Last checked: 2026-10-11