Barbican put-in (Plymouth)
Phoenix Wharf, at the end of Madeira Road in Plymouth's Barbican, sits on the open shore of Plymouth Sound, a natural harbour roughly three nautical miles across between Cornwall's Penlee Point and Devon's Wembury Point, just outside Sutton Harbour's lock gates. The Sound is fed by the Tamar to the north-west and the Plym's Cattewater to the north-east, and this stretch of shore faces across the water towards Mount Batten and Drake's Island. SUP schools including South West SUP, based nearby at Royal William Yard, run guided sessions on the Sound.
Plymouth Sound holds around 55 hectares of subtidal seagrass, and the beds support species including juvenile bass and seahorses; Natural England's monitoring records them as being in unfavourable condition, with recreational pressure named as a primary cause of the decline.
The Piermaster's House and Phoenix Wharf Pier, the last surviving fabric of the 19th-century Baltic Wharf emigration depot, still stand at the launch; the wharf originally operated as a public landing stage handling ferries and pleasure cruisers.
Nearby
Cafe about 90 metres from the launch.
Open to non-members; touring caravans and motorhomes only, no tent pitches; open seasonally (spring to autumn), about 4km from the launch.
WebsiteOpen all year to the general public, including tents and touring caravans, about 5km from the launch.
Conditions to check
Tidal streams are referenced to the standard port of Devonport, where the range is large; streams in and around the Sound itself are generally weak, under a knot at springs in the approaches.
The Cattewater and the waters off the Barbican carry regular ferry, pilot and commercial vessel movements; Cattewater Harbour Commissioners is the navigation and conservancy authority for this stretch, with harbour limits running from Mount Batten Breakwater and Fishers Nose to Sutton Lock Gates and Laira Bridge.
SourceThe foreshore either side of Phoenix Wharf dries to mud at the lowest spring tides; the neighbouring council slipways at Commercial Wharf and Elphinstone, a few tens of metres west, each publish that their own slipways flatten out to mud for roughly ten to thirty metres at those tides.
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