Icon May 28, 2010 - 16:17

Falmouth

Falmouth is famous for its harbour. Together with Carrick Roads, it forms the third deepest natural harbour in the world, and the deepest in Western Europe. It is also famous for being the start or finish point of various round-the-world record-breaking voyages, such as those of Sir Francis Chichester and Dame Ellen MacArthur.

With its fine Georgian town houses converted into guest houses and small hotels, often overlooking one of the beaches, Falmouth has proven a popular holiday destination and it is now primarily a tourist resort. The five main beaches starting next to Pendennis Castle and moving along the coast towards the Helford river are Castle, Tunnel, Gyllyngvase, Swanpool and Maenporth beaches. The National Maritime Museum Cornwall opened in February 2003.

University College Falmouth has two campuses in the Falmouth area; the original town site, Woodlane, and the other in the Combined Universities in Cornwall campus at Tremough, Penryn. The University offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses chiefly in the fields of Art, Design and Media. University College Falmouth is known worldwide for its award winning Journalism course, which boasts such graduates as Angus Walker and Fergus Walsh and the Graphic Design course which wins many coveted awards annually, such as the D&AD award.

With its proximity to sheltered and unsheltered waters, Falmouth has long been a popular boating and water sports location. The town is the location for the Tall Ships' Race in which approximately ninety Tall Ships set sail for Lisbon, Portugal. It also saw total coverage of the total eclipse of the sun at 11:11am on 11 August 1999 where the eclipse lasted just over two minutes — the longest duration in the UK.

Do you have any news, events, information about Falmouth? Would you like your business in Falmouth reviewed? Contact our South Cornwall Reporter Jess Mayne jess@cornwallscoolest.com