Pictures of Beesands

About Beesands

Here in Beesands narrow lanes rise swiftly up steep cliffs from a small beach-side fishing village showing a delightful mix match of old cottages fronted by a strip of softly shelving sand and shingle. It was over the cliffs to Beesands that villagers fled on that fateful night in 1917 when this old fishing hamlet was fortunate to escape the vicious seas lashing neighbouring Hallsands. The ferocity of gales along this coast is well known, it has been so for thousands of years. The village has been the home of fishermen for centuries, it was first recorded as a small community in the 16th-century and by the middle to the end of the 19th-century there were dozens of fishing boats working off Beesands beach, hauling in catches of crab, lobster, eel and cod.

Just as the village had prospered during the 19th and early 20th-century, so it was to suffer from the decline of the fishing industry and the storm which lashed its shores in 1979. Today, fishing from Beesands is mostly for the benefit of the tourist trade on which the village relies for its survival. Some commercial boats do go out to sea, returning to sell their catch locally to inns and restaurants in the area.

There are picturesque walks, water-sports, fishing trips and in the hinterland beyond the coast there is a myriad of tree-lined lanes linking delightful Devonshire hamlets, all of which a haven of tranquillity and a joy to explore.

Places to visit include: Kingswear, The museum at Kingsbridge, Dartmouth - for a fascinating 'olde worlde' quayside, See the ruins of Hallsands village and The lively harbour of Salcombe.