At the top of the auditorium, on the left-hand side, you will find a beautiful vista of Porthcurno Bay. The big beach directly below is accessed from the Valley carpark. Further round the bay is Ped’n Vounder beach, which is only accessible via a precipitous cliff path and can be prone to dangerous currents. On the end of the headland is the Logan Rock. You can walk out to it on the cliff path and the views are terrific.
If you visit Porthcurno beach, look on the right-hand side as you face the sea and you will find a flight of steps cut into the rock and a dilapidated concrete blockhouse built into the cliff. These steps were built by Miss Cade and are the start of a path all the way up to the theatre. The building is her Wendy House, which she built as a beach hut. It’s lost most of its character now, but you can still imagine Miss Cade and her mother spending lazy Sunday afternoons swimming and sunbathing, in the days when this was a secret cove, known only to those who lived nearby.
Porthcurno was not a sleepy place, however. Next to the carpark in the Valley, you will find the PK Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications, where you will discover that Porthcurno was at the centre of world communication for a hundred years. Looking down at the sun-kissed beach today, it’s hard to imagine that under our golden sand, telegraph messages once flowed from across the world.
The Valley was home to an international training centre for Cable & Wireless telegraph operators. For decades, this tiny community welcomed people of all nationalities and some of them were also involved in the Minack as both actors and audiences. Their engineers even helped to create the first technical installations at the theatre.
Retrace your steps slightly and take the steps up below the café windows back to the terrace above the auditorium.