Widemouth Bay

Widemouth Bay is a wide, open beach about three miles south of Bude, with a small village of mostly twentieth-century bungalows on the gently sloping hill behind it. There is no town here: the bay is backed by low cliffs of Carboniferous sandstone and farmland, and the cafés, pub and shops sit along the beach road and the hill above. Holiday parks and campsites fill in the gaps, which is why it gets busy in summer.

The shape of the beach is what makes it work for surfing. Rocky ledges run out at both ends and between them is a long stretch of sand with banks that shift through the year, so you usually have more than one peak to choose from. At low tide the rock formations around the edges are good for rock-pooling, and the Blue Flag beach has water quality rated excellent.

There is more history here than first appears. Sloops from Wales once used the bay as a basic landing place, unloading coal and limestone and loading Cornish goods for the trip back. On the landward side of the village, a 1960s repeater station marks where several submarine telecom cables come ashore, built to keep running independently with blast doors and its own power. You won't notice it from the sand, but it explains the low, unassuming building behind the bay.