Portloe () is a small village in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, on the Roseland Peninsula, in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Veryan. Portloe harbours two full-time working fishing vessels, the ''Jasmine'' and ''Katy Lil'', which fish for crab and lobster in Veryan and Gerrans Bay, and a fleet of smaller leisure boats in summer. Visitors are attracted to Portloe by its fishing, scenery, and walks. Portloe lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

passes through the village. The name ''Portloe'' comes from the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...

words ''porth'', meaning 'cove' or 'harbour', and ''logh'', meaning 'lake' or 'inlet'.

History

The

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on s ...

(RNLI) stationed a lifeboat at Portloe in 1870 but it was withdrawn in 1887 without ever having performed a rescue. It was kept at first in a boat house built at the end of the road above the beach. It proved difficult to move the boat across the beach so a new house was built in 1877 nearer the water. The first house was converted into a church; the second was a school for a while but has since become a private dwelling house. Portloe, "the jewel of the Roseland Peninsula", was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club me ...

in 2020.

Film locations

Used as a location for the 1964 film '' Crooks in Cloisters'', The Lugger Hotel can clearly be seen at the film's end. It was also the location for the BBC comedy series ''Wild West'', which starred

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

and

Catherine Tate Catherine Tate (born Catherine Jane Ford, 5 December 1969) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC Two, BBC sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show'' (2004–2007), as well as bein ...

and the location where '' Irish Jam'' was filmed, starring Eddie Griffin. Just to the south of the village is '' Broom Parc'', a cliff-top villa overlooking the sea which was the main location for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's 1992 serialisation of Mary Wesley's '' The Camomile Lawn''. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. In 2012, '' About Time'', the latest

Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including ''Four Weddings and a Funeral' ...

production, was partly filmed there.

References

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall