page_title: Crantock
section_title: Beaches
hierarchical_section_title: Crantock / Beaches
caption_attribution_description: English: In the early twentieth century a woman was horse riding along Crantock beach. She and her horse got cut off as the tide came in and the rough seas swept them away drowning them both. Her distraught lover carved a poem into a rock, in a cave on the beach, along with a portrait of his lost love and her horse.
context_page_description: Crantock is a coastal civil parish and a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately two miles southwest of Newquay.
  Crantock dates back to 460 AD when a group of Irish hermits founded an oratory there. The village lies to the south of the River Gannel which forms a natural boundary between the parishes of Newquay and Crantock. The River Gannel is tidal and ferries operate on a seasonal basis from Fern Pit to Crantock Beach. The River Gannel runs along Crantock Beach and joins the Atlantic Ocean. The village can be reached from the A3075 road via the junction at Trevemper. The hamlets of Treninnick and West Pentire are in the parish.
  Large parts of the parish are now in the ownership of the National Trust, including West Pentire headland which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest noted for its wild flowers and rare plants.
context_section_description: Like several other sandy beaches in the Newquay area, Crantock Beach is popular for surfing. There are car parks at Crantock Beach and West Pentire.  The beach is backed by sand dunes.
  At the left hand side of the beach, low tide reveals a carving into a rock, showing a picture of a woman's face, and the inscription "Mar not my face but let me be, Secure in this lone cave by the sea, Let the wild waves around me roar, Kissing my lips for evermore". Supposedly, in the early 20th century a woman was horse riding along Crantock Beach. She and her horse were cut off as the tide came in and the rough seas swept them away, drowning them both. Her distraught lover carved a poem into a rock in a cave on the beach, along with a portrait of his lost love and her horse. The carvings are said to be the work of a local man, Joseph Prater.
  The coastal footpath skirts all along the west side of the parish. Walking from Crantock the path leads to a sandy cove called Porth Joke, also known as "Polly Joke". Its name comes from the Cornish "porth lojowek" meaning "cove abounding in vegetation". In later Cornish this became Por Lejowak. This cove is entirely surrounded by National Trust land and has been virtually unchanged over the centuries. Further along the coast path is the village of Holywell, with a larger sandy beach at Holywell Bay.
caption: Crantock Beach carving
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