Carlyon Bay

For the parish council, see Carlyon.

Carlyon Bay
View from Carlyon Bay across St Austell Bay looking towards Black Head
Carlyon Bay is located in Cornwall
Carlyon Bay
Carlyon Bay
Location within Cornwall
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°20′10″N 4°43′55″W / 50.336112°N 4.731969°W / 50.336112; -4.731969
The beach in 2003
Partly demolished Cornwall Coliseum

Carlyon Bay (Cornish: Caryones, meaning forts) is a bay and a set of three beaches (Crinnis, Shorthorn and Polgaver) near St Austell on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is located approximately 2 miles (3 km) east of the town centre.[1]

Between 1920 and the Second World War, Carlyon Bay was the site of the New Cornish Riviera Lido and large sports facilities. After the war it became known as the Cornish Leisure World. A large venue, the Cornwall Coliseum, opened in the 1950s, it hosted exhibitions, tennis tournaments and concerts by musicians, but lost its importance with the opening of the Plymouth Pavilions in 1991.[2][3][4] The venue continued until early 2003 when only the Gossips nightclub remained open, until its closure too shortly after. The building stood, falling into disrepair, until demolition began in April 2015.[5]

Since the 1990s there have been plans for development of homes and a resort complex.

The area surrounding the bay was a centre of the mining industry and is now a golf course. The South West Coast Path runs along the cliff top and across the golf course. The Cliff Head Hotel was established in 1934 and stood until its demolition in 2017. Carlyon Bay is also the site of the Carlyon Bay Hotel, which stands upon and overlooks the cliff top with views of the bay.

In 1979 a scene for the film Dracula was filmed at Carlyon Bay and in 1986 the music video for Is This Love? by Alison Moyet was filmed on the beach.

Polgaver Beach is used by naturists.[6]

The large rock on the foreshore is known as Stack Rock

  1. ^ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 204 Truro & Falmouth ISBN 978-0-319-23149-4
  2. ^ "History". Commercial Estates Group. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  3. ^ "History of Carlyon Bay's beaches". Carlyon Bay Watch. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  4. ^ Praising 20 years of the Pavilions, Plymouth Herald, 16 September 2011.
  5. ^ "Demolition work starts at Cornwall Coliseum". BBC. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  6. ^ Smallcombe, Mike (19 July 2016). "There are plenty of nudist beaches around Cornwall..." West Briton. Retrieved 20 July 2016.