Contacts
Harbour Master  (known locally as “Pudd”) 01643 863187 mob 07423 283405

There has been a harbour here for centuries which seems strange (because it is anything but a natural harbour) until you realise that movement along that coastline was quickest by sea so each settlement needed a harbour of some sort.  The harbour belongs to the Porlock Estate, the buildings are there because of the harbour but nowadays their use is governed by the tourist trade!  The main village of Porlock is a mile and a half inland and is uphill pretty much all the way; be aware that that road is narrow, there is no pavement and the verges are untended so progress along it can be slow.


Porlock Beach itself is a much studied formation and, since its breach in 1996, has been left to look after itself so that the agricultural land which existed behind the beach barrier is now sea marsh and floods every high tide.  It is an example of letting nature take its own course rather than fight it with coastal reinforcement (which, at the time of writing in the winter of 2013/14, is now a very hot potato)  The consensus of opinion is that the breach is unlikely to self heal in the near future.

In the meantime there is the small, drying harbour much loved of weekend sailors in the Bristol Channel who come for comforts offered by the “Bottom” Ship in Porlock Weir or the cheaper delights of the “Top” Ship in Porlock village itself.  It is a picturesque spot in the summer but can be very exposed in the winter; the pretty little cottages “over the bridge” cannot get flooding insurance because they get flooded just about every winter! One of the exports from here was pit props for the South Wales mines and the boats returned with coal and limestone. You will find the remains of limekilns in the woods behind the harbour (as you will behind most of the harbours on this coast) as slaked lime was needed for the clay soil around here. The woods have some lovely walks and in the early summer are a delight; a walk to the west through the woods to Culbone Church is to be recommended.  

Finally, it would be crass to write about Porlock without mentioning the famous night in January 1899 when the lifeboat men and most of the population of Lynmouth, aided by a team of 18 horses, dragged the Lynmouth Life Boat, overnight, 15miles up the hill out of Lynmouth and down the hill on the other side into Porlock and launched at 0630, under oars, to assist in the rescue of the crew from a ship in trouble off Hurlstone point.  It’s quite a saga; they had to widen the road in places, knocked the corner off a house at the bottom of Porlock hill, four horses died, a wheel came off, etc, etc; and when you consider that in that 15 miles, the road  climbs nearly a thousand feet between Lynmouth and Porlock it was some feat and they hauled it back the following day!!

You should make your approach a couple of hours either side of High water

..... depending on your draft; ideally you’d be in a bilge keeler or some other such shallow draft boat that can take the ground.

From the West you’ll be travelling up on the flood and probably passing the Foreland Point in the fourth hour of that flood; there is no need to go all the way out round the Foreland Ledge; the passage close to the Point is pretty well free of overfalls (at least - it’s not as bad as further out) and the cliffs are steep to so there is no problem with depth. The only problem is that, with the wind off shore, if you continue close in you’ll be in the wind shadow of the cliffs and need to ease out a bit once you have cleared the Point. It’s then a matter of plodding along until you identify Porlock Weir and can look for the withies marking the channel in.

From the North or East you will have to work out your tides; Minehead is no problem but from Watchet you will probably have to peg the last hour of the flood to get here with enough water to enter.
Withies; most of the time there are two withies at the outer end of the channel and then there are a couple of withies on the Eastern side of the channel and they have been known to carry painted cans to indicate they are to port. Basically the groynes down the west side of the channel from the pierhead give good indication of the direction of the channel and if you use a combination of those and the withies, aiming for the grey gable end by the inner harbour bridge, you’ll be ok. (See the No2 photo in our gallery)
 

This is the difficult bit.  The residents moor their boats............

..... on either side of the narrow harbour, bows on, to either the pier wall to starboard or on fore and aft moorings to the shingle bank on the port side. The smaller boats favour the starboard side. There is a “pool” in the middle of the harbour with enough room for two boats to lie at anchor and stay afloat. (See the No3 photo in our gallery)

You would be well advised to call the harbour master before setting out to see if there will be room in the inn for you or you could end up having to anchor off and row in by dinghy.  There is only one visitors berth to starboard as you come into the harbour. The swing bridge into the inner harbour is seldom used (all the boats in there are shallow draft, low air draft angling boats) so don’t plan on being able to take your boat in there to dry out.  Having said that, there is seldom a problem finding room except perhaps on a bank holiday weekend when the Welsh flood across from Barry or Cardiff.

They charge (2018) £10 a boat a night irrespective of size

A word of warning; there are steps on the starboard side as you come in and, at HW, there is an inviting spot to tie up alongside them; look at our No3 photo; there is a narrow ledge there and, if you go into the visitors mooring there at HW, just make sure you don’t end up half on and half off that!!

There are public toilets in the car park which are fairly salubrious but you would be wise to go ashore equipped with your own paper on a Sunday morning! There is water available on a tap but no shore power. For fuel you would have to walk in to Porlock village and the petrol station is at the far end of that as well.  If you run out of Gas or Gaz the hardware shop in Porlock village has refills but would not be open on a Sunday.

This is not a place to expect to resupply your boat’s galley so come with enough stores to feed the crew for the weekend.  Likewise all other consumables.

There is a shop there for newspapers and some bits and pieces but that changes hands so should not be relied on for stores.

There’s a nice pub, a restaurant and a couple of cafes and if you want to walk to Porlock village there are several more of the same. You’ll find cheaper outlets in Porlock itself but bear in mind that after a pleasant evening there you are unlikely to want to face the walk back and resort to a taxi - which kind of negates the initial object of the exercise!

The place is packed out on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer but relatively clear in the evenings; most Bristol Channel yachties will recall pleasant evenings there and return year after year.