Bessy’s Cove is perhaps best known for its smugglers past, but it should also be known as one of the best wild swimming spots in the area. It’s a beautiful little cove with stunning turquoise water and craggy rock walls which create small secluded swimming channels at high tide.
There’s not much of a beach and what there is is pebbly, but at high tide it’s fantastic for swimming. It’s also easy to reach and not particularly well known.
Here’s how to find it.
The walk to Bessys Cove
The stats
Distance: 425m each way to Bessy’s Cove, 450m further to Prussia Cove
Elevation gain: 35m
Difficulty: Easy - moderate
Trailhead: Prussia Cove Car Park
Summary: The walk to Bessy’s Cove is quite short but there’s a decent amount of downhill on the way, so you have a bit of a climb to the car park on the way back.
It’s a good track for most of the way, with a narrower trail towards the end. The final 55m down to the beach is rocky, but it’s not too steep and the rock is grippy when dry.
You can continue on to Prussia Cove, but it’s not as nice as Bessy’s in our opinion.
The walk to Bessy's Cove
From the Prussia Cove car park you head east (right out of the car park) on the wide path which is labelled as a private road, but you are allowed to walk along it.
After 100m the path curves right and begins heading downhill. After another 150m (250m from the car park) you will come to the junction with Prussia Cove.
Heading left/straight here will take you to Prussia Cove and right takes you down to Bessy’s.
We’ll cover Prussia Cove in the next section, but for now you bear right and after 75m, beside the thatched house, turn left and then immediately left again at the fence.
Follow the narrow path downhill which is a decent track and a mix of stairs and compact dirt.
After 45m you will reach the final rocky descent to the beach. It’s only a 55m stretch and the gradient is not overly steep.
There are indents in the rock to use as footholds, but it’s far from being a scramble. It’s just uneven and requires a touch more care. As long as the rock is dry it’s nice and grippy.
You’ll arrive at the beach 425m after leaving the car park.
Bessy’s Cove
Bessy’s Cove is gorgeous, with stunning turquoise water and excellent clarity. Rugged walls run along the back of the cove creating several well sheltered (if a little small) swimming channels at high tide.
The channels aren’t cut off from the sea like a rockpool would be, but they are more protected than the sea around the main beach - although that’s generally pretty calm here too.
The walls reminded me a lot of Greece and on a sunny day with that crystal clear water, you really could be in the Mediterranean!
If you want maximum beach space then you want to come a few hours either side of low tide, but the beach is mainly pebbly, so it’s not really the best for laying out.
At high tide all that remains is a sliver of pebbles, though there is space to lay out towels on the rocks as well if you don’t mind climbing up onto them.
We love high tide here as there is plenty of deep water for swimming almost immediately as you enter the sea, and you can swim in the little rock channels too.
You can check out the tide and swell forecast here.
Continuing onto Prussia Cove
To get to Prussia Cove you continue back uphill to the junction, which is 175m away, and then take the path heading right (it would have been left or straight depending on how you view it if you hadn’t been down to Bessy’s first).
The path is wide and relatively flat and after 200m you’ll get some great views of Bessy’s Cove from above.
The walk continues past a beautiful house and through a pretty tree tunnel before you reach a small bridge, 410m beyond the junction.
Cross the bridge and then take the slightly rough, rocky track leading downhill to the right. You’ll reach the beach after 40m.
Prussia Cove
Prussia Cove has a bit more beach at high tide than Bessy’s does, but it’s not as beautiful and swimming here is not as good. It’s a much quieter beach so if that’s your main objective it’s a better bet, but in all other ways we prefer Bessy’s.
The beach is pebbly and the water is rocky and shallow for some time even at high tide which is why it’s not as good for swimming.
It’s a pleasant place to sit and relax though, and even on our visit in the school summer holidays there was only a handful of people around.
If the tide is out you could walk around to the next beach along, Kenneggy Cove, which looks amazing!
From afar, the beach looked huge, with golden sand and more of that stunning turquoise water. We’ll definitely be back to check it out another day!
If you do visit at high tide you could swim or take a SUP over, but as we haven’t done it ourselves yet it would be hard to say how long it might take.
Where to park for Bessy’s Cove
The car park for Bessy’s Cove is just south of the village of Rosudgeon, postcode TR20 9BA, you can see the location here on Google maps. The car park is private but there is currently no fee for parking.
It does fill up in the middle of the day in the school holidays so you might want to come early or late at this time if you don’t want to chance your luck.
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All the best wild swimming spots in Cornwall, from shimmering turquoise rockpools to emerald lagoons, quarry pools and stunning waterfalls. If you love longer swims there are many calm stretches of water where you can swim from bay to bay stopping at all the little gorgeous coves along the way.