St Just Creek slipway (St Just in Roseland)
Saint Just Creek is a short tidal inlet on the eastern shore of Carrick Roads, part of the Fal Estuary, which together with Falmouth forms the third largest natural harbour in the world. The creek's innermost basin, St Just Pool, sits at St Just in Roseland's parish church, with the slipway launching onto the water at the foot of the churchyard.
Carrick Roads, the deep natural harbour that Saint Just Creek opens onto, is a ria (a drowned river valley flooded by the sea) running north to the King Harry chain ferry and Truro. Messack Point, just south of the creek entrance, is marked by a granite pillar recording the historic boundary between the Port of Truro and Falmouth Harbour. The wider Roads are a noted birdwatching area: little egret and kingfisher are seen year-round, joined in winter by great northern and black-throated divers alongside black-necked, red-necked and Slavonian grebes.
The creek and estuary form part of the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation, designated for habitat including its maerl beds, the largest of their kind in south-west Britain according to the JNCC, and its eelgrass meadows. The creek's dominant landmark is St Just's Church beside the slipway, a Grade I listed church consecrated in 1216 with sub-tropical churchyard gardens sloping to the water; the parish's own website records John Betjeman's description of the churchyard as "to many people the most beautiful churchyard on earth". The creek is also worked by the Fal oyster fishery, described by its regulator, the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, as the last fleet in Europe to dredge entirely under sail.
Nearby
In the church gardens beside the slipway; listed on OpenStreetMap under its former name, Miss V's Cornish Cream Tea.
A touring park for tents, caravans and motorhomes, about 1.5 miles from the creek.
WebsiteConditions to check
St Just Pool, the creek's innermost basin, dries for about 300 metres inside the entrance and is shielded from Carrick Roads by a shingle bar, so it fills and drains fully with every tide.
SourceTidal streams in the Fal generally follow the channel and reach over 2 knots in the upper reaches at springs (Falmouth is the standard port).
SourceThe creek carries more than a hundred small-craft moorings, with a winter lay-up ground for a similar number of vessels, run by Pasco's Boatyard.
SourceCarrick Roads beyond the creek is used as a deep-water anchorage for laid-up commercial vessels, some up to 180 metres in length.
SourceBetween October and March, engineless Falmouth working boats dredge for oysters under sail in the creek and Carrick Roads, sharing the water with craft that cannot manoeuvre under power.
SourceQuestions
No questions yet
Ask about parking, access or conditions. Anyone who knows this water can answer.
Comments
No comments yet.
Save your own spots
Keep the places you launch, check the wind and shelter before you go, and log every paddle. Add a spot to the directory too, and other paddlers will find it. Free to start.