Annual Lizard Peninsula Swimming Holiday

One of our highlights every year is the Lizard Peninsula swimming holiday. We always hold it on the first weekend of September. The water is still warm and the crowds have thinned out. We’ve held this holiday for the last four years and each one has been absolutely stunning!

This year we really had to work. We had a southwest swell that rules out the west coast and easterly winds…so our experience really came into play, during the planning for this trip. Despite challenging conditions, we put on 5 delightful swims, in flat and enjoyable conditions.

Swim 1 - Kennack Sands following a route north, along the coastline, using the cliffs for shelter. Clear water, plenty of marine life and a great swim to start everyone off.

Swim 2 - Coverack, another nice and sheltered swim. We swam up and checked out the harbour before again, swimming north and keeping out of the wind. From there we took advantage of the location and popped into Roskilly’s. Epic pizza and ice cream…

Swim 3 - Durgan on the Helford river. Stunning morning swim, in pan flat conditions. Swimming from Durgan over to Trebah, then back across to Durgan to Grebe Beach. Beautiful scenery and weather. From there we visited the very unique and beautiful Potager Gardens for lunch.

Swim 4 - Parbean Beach. Takes some effort to get to but we had a very nice swim towards the mouth of the estuary / end of the headland and back. A new route for us.

Swim 5 - Church Cove / Gunwalloe. A proper sea swim…as we had snuck in a few river routes. Great morning for it and as it was swim 5, we picked a route that allowed a half way exit.

Safe to say that everyone had a fantastic weekend, including the staff! Bring on 2024.

Polurrian Swimming

Polurrian Beach is a real stunner on the Lizard Peninsula. It has limited parking or you park up at Poldhu and walk a good mile on the coast path. Whilst this might put some people off, it ensures the beach is never that busy.

Now, the beach can pick up swell. So you have been warned. Typically, not a lot of swell over the summer months and at the time of writing, it is lifeguarded over the 6 peak weeks of the summer. You’d generally want to avoid swell or wind of any strength from the west. I’d also be very careful swimming there, particularly near the headlands on an outgoing tide, particularly a spring tide.

Safer Swimming Guide - Church Cove

First things first, it’s the Church Cove on the east side of the Lizard. There are two!

I love this swim. Make sure you do stick to the swimming cove at Cadgwith…the one to the south / right hand side. The other ‘fishing cove’ can have heavy boat traffic.

You can find the Devil’s Frying Pan to the south. Just make sure you swim with a friend and I can’t stress how serious I am about the swell. Anything larger than 1-1.5m from any direction will result un swell rolling in and some potentially quite rough conditions. I’ve only ever cancelled 2 swims from the actual swim location (just prior to the start of a swim) and Cadgwith was one of those locations! A NW swell somehow got in there…it looks impossible.