Porthustock

Porthustock beach is to the east of The Lizard peninsula, about a mile from St Keverne. It's a stony beach, so no sand castles. Park on the beach - honesty box. Loos behind the Old LIfeboat Station by the road through.

We find it a good place to have lunch and sit - the dogs can roam and get wet. It's a launch point for all the divers who dive the Manacles Reef, just to the south. Geologically it's interesting as on the southernmost portion of the beach exposed at low tide is a mid-ocean ridge dyke sequence, pushed up when an ocean closed about 300 million years ago. The view is across Falmouth Bay.

For the dogs it's a wandering and mooching type of beach - they can explore to their hearts content. It's not crowded and it's not at all commercial - the nearest shop's a mile away in St Keverne. - they do good pasties.

Be careful when you park to stay on the flat bit of the beach, otherwise you'll be the afternoon's entertainment as you get towed off by a rusty tractor. And the sea gets deep quickly as the slope of the beach face is steep.