Swanpool Beach and Nature Reserve
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Popular Swanpool Beach is a sandy cove near to the town of Falmouth on Cornwall's sheltered south east coast.
The beach at Swanpool is sand and shingle the water quality excellent.
There is a large car park directly opposite, an 18 hole crazy golf course and the award winning Beach Cafe is open all year selling good home made food. A watersports school provides hire and tuition in Sailing, Coasteering, Windsurfing, Kayaking and more.
Beach huts are let during the season, a bouncy castle is located on the beach during the summer months for young children and there is an all day kids' club available during school holidays and weekends from April to October.
The South West Coast Path treaverses this stretch of coast and a path from the cove leads to the larger Gyllingvase beach.
Directions
Approaching from either east or west take the A39 and follow directions for Falmouth. Follow the A39 around Falmouth. Turn right at a mini roundabout, signposted to Beaches, on to Pennance Road. Then take the 2nd right, signposted Swanpool and continue along this road to Swanpool Beach.
Swanpool Nature Reserve
Swanpool Nature Reserve, a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) consists of a small coastal saline lagoon with a shingle bar, which separates it from Swanpool Beach. The area was cut off by a shingle bar which formed after the last Ice Age, thereby creating a lake. The reserve is one of the eleven most important brackish lagoons in Britain.
The brackish conditions, a mixture of fresh and salt water, enable a wide variety of wildlife to thrive. One species, The Trembling Sea Mat, is found nowhere else in Britain, while it looks like a plant, the trembling sea mat belongs to a group of primitive animals called bryozoa, they feed using a crown of tentacles covered in tiny hairs that catch food from the water.
Swanpool has abundant plant life. The wetter margins of the wood are home to the brightly coloured yellow flag iris, Cornish moneywort, greater tussock sedge and Lady's smock. In the shallower, saltier areas the pool is fringed with reed beds and sea club-rush.
More than a hundred bird species have been sighted at Swanpool these include Mute Swan, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Water Rail, Siskin, Kingfisher, Little Grebe and Tufted Duck.