I don't know because the car park was choc a bloc. If you are going in the winter I would imagine there are plenty of spaces but if going in the summer or a nice day it fills up very early. There's a field car park at the top of the hill on the right before you descend, lots of room and lovely lady owner running it but it's about quarter of a mile from the beach. The road is tarmaced so OK if you have disabled scooter/wheelchair. I think this field is only open at busy times.

Hi everybody There is absolutely no confusion. There was indeed a bungalow by the car park and beach at Chapel Porth and there was a tea hut selling tea, coffee, hot chocolate, Horlicks (remember Horlicks....), cold drinks (remember Vimto and Tizer....), sandwiches, cakes and ice creams. It was run by a lovely lady called Clare - Mrs. Clare Guard (later she became Clare Donald), Apart from running the tea hut she used to swim and sunbathe when time allowed and was a thoroughly lovely outdoor person. She used to live in a little bungalow/chalet about a mile away from the beach and half way or so between Chapel Porth and St.Agnes, more or less opposite the turning into Beacon Drive. I holidayed at Chapel Porth every year from about 1954 to well into the '70s initially with my Mum and Dad, my brother, my uncle and aunt, my cousin, our grandparents and our Alsatian dogs - and later on with one girlfriend or another.............. We used to rent a bungalow at the top of the road leading down to Chapel Porth beach where on one side we could look right down the road to the beach and on the other we could see across to the disused tin mine 'Wheal Charlotte'. I used to walk our dogs around this valley every morning while my Dad, giving my Mum a break, cooked the breakfast. Very often Clare would pay us a visit on her way down to the beach in the mornings, together with her dogs - all West Highland Whites - firstly Donnie, Kelpie & Mac and when they died, Hamish & Dougall. Clare was just a bit Scottish......... She was also a very good artist and her bungalow was festooned with many of her own pictures and other handicrafts. The chalet/bungalow to which the earlier correspondent referred was indeed there but was knocked down in, I am guessing, the mid '60s - why I don't know. Often I used to walk past this very bungalow on my way down to the beach because there was a path down from the top of the valley near our own bungalow that one could use instead of taking the road - as a kid I used to say "Mum, I'm going down to the beach 'the Country Way".......... In the early days, Clare's original tea hut was right on the front and really a bit spartan but this was replaced in the early '60s, c/o The National Trust I suppose, by the hut that I believe still stands there today, at the other end of the car park and further away from the beach. We used to swim, we used to surf, we used to play mammoth games of cricket on the beach with and against other families (from Birmingham and Manchester, we were from London....), we used to boast that we'd go out with the life saving equipment if ever it was needed but we never did......! Sometimes in the evening, Mum and Dad would take us out to one pub or another for a drink after supper - 'The Miners Arms in nearby Mithian or 'The Commodore' in Porthtowan. When the weather was bad on the north coast we used to get in the car and drive to the south where very often it was totally different - Cadgwith, Porthleven, Helford village, St. Mawes - it was bliss. The walks from Chapel Porth were quite superb - in one direction over the cliffs to Wheal Coates tin mine and beyond towards St. Agnes, in another direction the clifftop walk to Porthtowan and a little further inland the walk to and up St. Agnes Beacon. We loved these walks and so did our dogs.......... By the bungalows where we used to stay was a farm with a riding stables and a stream running through it and down to the beach (I guess from Mount Hawke...) where if you were clever enough you could fish for trout. Since the '70s I have been only an occasional visitor to Chapel Porth because of getting married, starting a family, having heavy working and other commitments, much of them overseas, but I still love the place dearly. With its white stones picking out the name 'CHAPEL PORTH' on the hillside, for me it has the best beach, the best sea and the best scenery that I have ever seen and if it had at least something approaching Mediterranean weather it would be a true paradise. My family, now with the kids grown up, have determined we shall all visit again this year, we need only to find the right accommodation close by and the most suitable dates. Searching for these is how I came across this site - by accident - I never knew it existed. I hope any readers of this 'mish-mash' of childish and sentimental recollections will forgive my ramblings but I have enjoyed going down memory lane once more and I hope that maybe some of you have too.

Did you manage to find it ok?