Porth beach

The beach at St Columb Minor is known either as St Columb Porth or more commonly just "Porth" or "Porth beach", though the latter is effectively "cove beach", rivalling "Coombe valley" ("valley valley") for the place name most lost in translation.

The narrow beach, between the two parallel headlands, is consequently fairly sheltered and therefore generally better-suited to swimming than surfing. The gradient is very shallow so the tide comes in quite fast. The river running along the right-hand side of the beach is deeper and faster-flowing than you might expect: attempting to wade through in wellies may result in an unplanned swim.