Portloe is considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of the Roseland peninsula and one of the prettiest villages in Cornwall. Its steep-sided valleys have meant that it has managed to escape development over the years and many buildings differ little from when they were built. Its name develops from the Cornish Porth Logh meaning “cove pool”. The naturally sheltered position meant that the village grew in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a busy pilchard fishing port. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were more than fifty boats fishing there - now only three boats work from the cove mainly for crab and lobster. Smuggling, as elsewhere in Cornwall, has played a part in Portloe’s history, French brandy was the main contraband, brought ashore by fishermen and hidden in cellars and local farms. In fact in 1824 the problem was thought so bad that the Customs ordered the erection of a watch, boathouse and slip in a vain attempt to deter the illicit trade.
