Cornish Seal Sanctuary

Hear about dramatic rescues and meet the seals whose individual stories are brought to life during your visit.

Explore behind the scenes at the heart of marine rescue in Cornwall’s only working Seal Hospital. See how we carry out life-saving work with our animals and nurture our new arrivals. You can also experience what it takes to become a marine expert. From a sneak peek at our food preparation area, to getting hands on in our hospital pup pen you’ll get an insight into the science behind the Sanctuary. We also have a host of special activities to celebrate this year please check out our events tab for full details.

Tucked against the picturesque backdrop of the Helford River, the Sanctuary is a designated site of special scientific interest and an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our 42 acre centre also boasts a woodland quiz trail, café with undercover seating and two gift shops. Don’t miss out on our great all year round events calendar.

We are open daily, 11am - 4pm with last admissions at 3pm. Please book your free arrival slot and tickets via our website.

Each year, we rehabilitate over 70 grey seal pups from local coastal waters and bring them into our specialist Seal Hospital.

Our Seal Hospital has the facilities to look after 6 poorly Seal pups at one time. Each Seal costs over £2,000 to rehabilitate and we are incredibly grateful for the continued support from our guests.

Once our rescued seal pups injuries have healed and they have reached a healthy weight we release them back into the wild.

We couldn’t do our work without you. Every year, we rescue seal pups in need of care from around the coastline. From wounds, to entanglement to malnourishment; there are lots of reasons why seal pups might need rescuing.

Seal pups cost on average £2000 to go through rehabilitation – and this doesn’t include those that require special care, such as Ted who came to us with a broken jaw and needed surgery or Harry who was so entangled in netting his wounds were life threatening. Pups such as these need more care and this can be pricey – we had 86 rescues during the 2017 season, and the costs add up!

We are grateful for any donation received. Your money could go a long way to helping our animals get the care they really need.