Polzeath Beach - Cornwall, UK

Atlantic waves roll straight into Polzeath (Polsegh in Cornish), one of the best-loved surf beaches on Cornwall's north coast, and this camera looks across the wide golden sand of Hayle Bay toward the rugged headland of Pentire Point.

Because the beach faces the open Atlantic, swell arrives all year round, so there are nearly always surfers out waiting for the next set, while dog walkers follow the shoreline and the tide sweeps in and out across the flat sand.

At low tide the beach stretches a long way out, with rock pools along the edges. It was on the cliffs near Pentire Point, across the bay, that Laurence Binyon wrote the war poem "For the Fallen" in 1914.

Did You Know? The poet John Betjeman spent his childhood summers in Trebetherick, the village just behind this beach. He later became Britain’s Poet Laureate and is buried a short walk away at St Enodoc’s Church.

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