Location
Pentle Bay is located on the West Coast of Tresco, in the Isles of Scilly.
Access and Parking
There are no private cars on Tresco, so parking isn’t going to be possible!
Access to Tresco is generally by boat from Hugh Town on St. Mary’s although it is also possible to access Tresco by boat from one of the other ‘off-islands’. It used to be possible to get to Tresco from Penznace by Helicopter ( this isn’t running at the moment, but there are plans to start a service up again May 2019).
There is a regular ferry service that runs to St. Mary’s from Penzance, and flights also operate from Lands End, Newquay and Exeter airports.
It is possible to stay overnight on Tresco, but accommodation anywhere on the Scillies can be expensive and book up very quicky.
Once on Tresco, the beach is accessible by foot. The main access points by boat (New Grimsby and Carn Near) are both about 1.5km away, but the walking is easy on good, reasonably level paths.
The Beach
Pentle Bay is a crescent of about 1km of white sand - it’s one of the spectacular beaches in the Scillies that look like they could be in the Indian Ocean. The beach is backed by dunes along most of its length. There is a footpath that runs about 20 metres behind the beach, but the dunes shelter the beach from the path.
There are excellent views from the beach East to St. Mary’s and North to Tean and St. Martin’s. There is plenty of boat traffic passing between the islands of various sizes, some of which will come in quite close to the shore to access the slipway at Old Grimsby.
The water is perfectly clear and very safe for swimming as the bay is sheltered between islands. As the Scillies are well off the coast of Cornwall, the water can be very cold!
There are no facilities on the beach itself, but there are public toilets at Old Grimsby one km North-West and an excellent (if expensive) restaurant - the Ruin Beach Cafe.
Naturism
The beach has no repututation for Naturism (official or otherwise) and Tresco is privately owned, so I can’t comment on the attitude of the Estate towards naturism. However, as we all know the law on naturism in England is clear and the beach is so good it seemed a shame to spoil it with clothes.
Updated 5.5.19 aw