Hotels in Fowey

You can, but we wouldn't recommend it!

The road down into the town centre and through it is one-way and narrow. In the height of the season it is crammed with holiday makers and it will take you ages to make your way through. It is a far better idea to park at the top in the main carpark and catch the hoppa bus down and back up.

There is also a carpark at Caffa Mill beside where the car ferry comes across from Bodinnick. From here it is a reasonably level walk into the centre.

Yes, the sandy Readymoney Cove is out towards the mouth of the harbour and faces across to the village of Polruan, so great for morning swims in the sunshine! There's a little cafe/shop there and public toilets.

It's a five minute walk from the beach car park and about a 20 minute walk from the town centre. There's good access for pushchairs and wheelchairs.

Dogs are allowed on the beach, except between the hours of 10am and 6pm, in July and August. (2022)

Elsewhere, a walk along the South West Coast Path, both to the west, or east beyond Polruan, will bring you to several lovely hidden away coves.

You can always tell a holiday maker by the way they pronounce certain Cornish placenames... Tintagel, Launceston, Mevagissey, Mousehole.... but probably the most common mispronunciation is Fowey.

It rhymes with toy, not cow, so say Foy and you won't be far wrong!

The name comes from the old Cornish word for Beech Tree, and is taken from the name of the river rather than the town.

The River Fowey snakes its way through 27 miles of some of the finest Cornish landscape, starting high on Bodmin Moor and eventually reaching the sea at Fowey.

It starts off as a group of springs below Brown Willey, Cornwall's highest hill. From there it runs south past Jamaica Inn and down the Draynes Valley to Golitha Falls. Here you will find a car park and plenty of walks amongst the woodland.

Falling off of Bodmin Moor's granite uplands it veers south west meeting the Loveny River near the Trago Mills shopping outlet. Here it forms the wide Glynn Valley, through which also goes the main railway line and the A38 trunk road. It passes Bodmin Parkway Station and then flows through the Lanhydrock Estate at the pretty Respryn Bridge.

It soon reaches Lostwithiel and the tidal part of the river. From here it spreads out, meandering through reed beds and at low tide large areas of mud. Various creeks go off on either side to former ports such as Lerryn and Penpol before it reaches the docks upriver from Fowey.

By now the river has become a deep harbour, full of boats of all shape and size. As far removed from the little boggy springs high on Bodmin Moor as you could imagine.