Welcome to Portwrinkle Harbour

Portwrinkle harbour has a small number of seasonal moorings for local boats and kayaks together with storage facilities ashore.

The Harbour is popular with swimmers, divers and kayakers – which can make for a very busy harbour – and as a result, motorboats and jet skis are prohibited.  With strong tidal currents and a tricky harbour entrance, everyone is strongly advised to read the safety notices at the harbour.  There is no public vehicular access to the harbour, but there is a public car park and toilets in the village.

History

The first quay was built at Portwrinkle in 1612 to support the local pilchard fishing seines.  The quay and harbour were rebuilt in 1792 – much enhanced with the new two storey Pilchard Cellars for processing and packing the pilchards.  Supported by itinerant workers who travelled the UK coastline following the work, by the mid 1800’s pilchards had been replaced by mackerel and this fishery continued up to the early 1900s.  As the old seine collectives wound up at the start of the Great War, fishing was continued by just a handful of local families and visitors to the hamlet.  Commercial fishing slowly declined in the latter half of the twentieth century and the final commercial boat completed its last season at Portwrinkle in 2020.

In the mid-1970’s Cornwall Council constructed coastal protection structures within the harbour creating a wide promenade which in due course was used for boat storage and the start of the “Dinghy Park”.  Following the repair of the storm damage to the harbour wall in 2014, a Harbour User Group was set up with the desire to meet the increasing demand for dinghy and kayak spaces.  With a grant from the Coastal Revival Fund, new racks were installed in 2016 and now house up to 25 dinghies and 32 kayaks.  In 2016, management for Portwrinkle Harbour and the dinghy park were transferred to Cornwall Councils Harbours’ Board.   

Licences for berths and storage are issued by Truro Harbour Office. A waiting list in in operation. 

Facilities

Dinghy racks

Promenade spaces

Wet berths 

Kayak Spaces