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| Scroll down to see all this large homepage & to see Index below, left | |||
| In medieval times there were two towns on opposite banks of the River Looe. East Looe includes the fishing harbour, the main shopping centre and the sandiest beach. West Looe is quieter, but also has shops, restaurants and hotels and leads to Hannafore with its fine views of Looe Island. The two towns are joined together by a bridge across the river. |
INDEX
Click on topic
to select:
Accommodation
Advice
Attractions
Boat owners
Buses & Trains
Churches
Cinema
Ferries, Fowey & Polruan
Facilities
Guest Book
History
Lions
Links
Location
Looe Island
Luggers
News
Polperro
RC Churches
Running
Sailing
Sclerder Abbey
Shops
Staying
Talland Bay
Walks
Wrecks
| Most recent development - 12 October 2011 © 1999 - 2011 www.looe.org |
| www.looe.org was launched on 1 October 1999 and aims to serve both visitors and residents. |
| Sorry! We do not answer
individual queries - all the information we have is on this website! If you are looking for holiday accommodation contact advertisers on our Accommodation page. If you are looking for visitor information contact the Looe Tourist Information Office (tel: 01503 262072) Please note: We do not produce or distribute any printed material, tourist guides, etc - please contact the Tourist Information Office (tel: 01503 262072) for such material. Do not contact this website requesting brochures - despite this and other notices, we receive so many requests that now we do not reply! |
New Page: Today we have launched our new Local Biz page which will carry listings of businesses of all types in and around Looe (but not holiday accommodation which can be found on a different page - click here). So, take a look and next time you are in the town you can check out interesting shops and other businesses - meanwhile you can visit their websites, if they have one, or give them a ring. Click here for the new page. If you own or run a local business, it can be on the new page - just look for the link (at the top of the new page) to the registration page or click here (12 October 2011) |
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A perfect day for
Walking on Water Unlikely
though it seems, on just a few occasions each year when there are
exceptionally low tides, it is possible to walk from the mainland
at Hannafore all the way to Looe Island (St. George's Island). Yesterday
(29 September) was one such day and in perfect balmy weather more
than 100 people, local residents and visitors, did the walk including
the three ladies shown in the photo, all long time Looe residents
who had never attempted the crossing before. And there was a fair
assortment of canine participants who seemed to enjoy the experience
just as much as the humans. There's no time to explore the island
or hang about on this walk as the tide soon floods back in. It would
be an exaggeration to  say
that you can keep your feet dry but provided you don't slip on the
seaweedy sea-floor then you should keep dry above your knees. The
walk should be possible again today (30 September) when the afternoon
low tide at 14:33 hrs BST will be nearly as low (but you will get
a little wetter - and don't hang about!) Next possibilities are in
2012 - consult the Tourist Information Office (01503 262 072) for
more information and future dates when it will be possible to do this
walk. Also Cornwall
Wildlife Trust which now owns Looe Island and manages it as
a nature reserve. There are boats from Looe harbour to the island
most days during the tourist season(weather permitting) - landing
fee payable to the Wildlife Trust. Click images for larger versions.
(photos copyright - www.looe.org - all rights reserved) (30 September 2011) |
A
week of Carnival Fun - over for another year
Looe Carnival was blessed with good weather this year - the first
event the Carnival Show and All Day Car Boot at West Waylands Farm
started with a little drizzle but things brightened steadily during
the day and with events every day, from Looe's own version of the
Floral Dance right through the week of fun seaside activities on the
beach and concerts and performances in the evening to the final Carnival
Procession on Saturday. Organised as always by the hard-working guys
of the Looe Lions Club - who do great charitable work throughout the
year - the Carnival helps raise the cash to enable these charitable
works to happen during the rest of the year, so thank you to all who
contributed to the Lions' Appeal. For more information go to the Looe Lions website - click here  These two in the Classic Car competition seem almost to be enjoying themselves too much! - we are pleased to report that no pile-up ensued in the show-ring (www.looe.org - news - 2 August 2011) |
 New
threats to Area of Outstanding Natural BeautyCornwall Council planners are due to consider a proposal by a local farmer to build two wind turbines on his land overlooking Talland Bay, an area on the Heritage Coast and in the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, just a couple of miles west of Looe. The towers would only be 18m high, but the overall height with the turbine blades would be appreciably higher. Already there have been many representations made to the planners - two in favour but overwhelmingly (28 at present) against the development which it is argued would be both visually intrusive and would cause a significant background noise in what has been a tranquil and treasured location. Also under consideration is a housing development which campaigners suspect is just a taster for much larger scale housing development of an elevated site overlooking the bay. Visit our Talland website to learn more and for links to the County Planners' website where you can make your views known - click here (14 July 2011) STOP PRESS: Planning permission refused for wind turbines at Talland Bay (15 /8/2011) |
Nelson returns - in
spirit at least  For
many years Looe had a popular & much-loved regular visitor to
its harbour - a seal called Nelson (because he had lost one eye in
an injury or accident). Sadly Nelson has gone to the great ocean in
the sky but now he is fittingly commemorated by a handsome life-size
statue in the harbour which was formally unveiled in 2008 by Sir Robin
Knox-Johnston, the famous sailor. Local sculptor Suzie Marsh gave
her services in making the sculpture free of charge and the costs
of casting and siting the bronze statue were met by grants and donations
from many charitable and other bodies and by individuals. Click
on photo for large version. |
Forgotten
piece of Looe's history Dan
Snow's TV series on the history of the Royal Navy described how Looe
and its people had been involved - its sturdy sea-farers were known
as "western adventurers" at the time of the Spanish
Armada and were an important part of the resource of more than
1,100 Cornish mariners and seamen who were listed by the Elizabethan
government as vital to the manning of English ships against the Spanish
Armada in 1588. Dan also told the story of 80 Looe people captured
from the town in 1632 by "Barbary pirates"- muslim
adventurers from North Africa - who terrorised the coast of south-west
England by operating the reverse version of the slave trade to that
which the English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake established
in the days of Elizabeth I two generations earlier. We believe that
the story of Looe people captured and taken into slavery was not well
known previously - maybe this was an event which the town was ashamed
of and preferred to forget? www.looe.org - 29 April 2010. Photo copyright BBC. Click on the photo of Dan Snow to visit the BBC's website & information about the TV series |
Memorial
to those lost at sea Visitors
to Looe may have seen the recently erected memorial plaque on the
end of the new Fish Market building on East Looe Town Quay. Local
author, ex-fisherman and chairman of the Cornish Lugger Association,
Paul Greenwood felt that as the passing of Nelson the seal had been
commemorated then so too should the people of Looe who had been lost
at sea in peacetime. So he did the research and designed the plaque.
Bob Tarr, webmaster, www.looe.org |
LIFE
ABOARD A CORNISH FISHING LUGGER  The
last days of working fishing luggers in Cornwall are vividly captured
in a new book by former Looe fisherman Paul Greenwood. His
frank account of the hardships he encountered at sea as a young crewman
aboard the lugger Iris in the 1960s is a brilliant evocation
of a bygone age that contrasts with modern conditions in the fishing
industry today. In Once Aboard A Cornish Lugger, the author describes how he overcame sea-sickness and learned his job on deck working the nets and lines alongside four other crewmen aboard the Iris, skippered by Frank ‘Moogie’ Pengelly, the last lugger skipper left in the port of Looe. In the four and a half years he spent aboard the Iris, Paul Greenwood endured fatigue, cold and wet, often in rough weather while working night and day hauling nets and lines. “Those four years that I worked with ‘Moogie’ set me up well for the rest of my sea-going career,” he says, “because nothing subsequently ever seemed as hard or as physically demanding as the time I spent working on the deck of the Iris.” Visit our new page on Cornish luggers which has details of how and where you can buy this new book - click here |
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Looe's
big night is New Year's Eve!
 Fancy
dress, partying, fireworks: that's Looe on every New Year's Eve -
said by the Times to be in the top 4 places in the UK to celebrate
New Year, this small Cornish town has quite a reputation to keep up
- will you be one of those in fancy dress next New Year's Eve?If you have some photos send them to us now - click here |
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| Want to advertise
on this website? click here Are you a local business? Click here to apply for a listing on this website Please note: this contact address is strictly only for advertisers and editorial contributors - we do not have the resources to answer individual queries or supply information. We do NOT send out tourism brochures - contact the Tourist Infomation Office on 01503 262072. |
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Place mouse arrow on photos below to see captions & click on them for larger photos
Place mouse arrow on photos above to see captions & click on them for larger photos
The top photo (of E Looe beach) is the copyright of Tim Johnson, others copyright www.looe.org
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