About Thurlestone
A guide to staying in Thurlestone
Thurlestone is built along a ridge above its bay on the west-facing coast, about five miles (8 km) west of Kingsbridge and north along the shore from Hope Cove. It is built in the dark grey slate quarried in this part of Devon — the parish church of All Saints is built of it, with a chancel from early in the 13th century and the rest of the church from the 15th and 16th.
The village takes its name from the rock standing offshore: the "thirled" stone, an arch worn through by the sea, from the Old English thurl meaning a hole. It is the landmark in every photograph of the bay, and it is what you will see from most of the properties on this page.
Below the ridge the sand runs north and south, with Leas Foot Sand tucked in just to the south-west. These are open-coast beaches facing west, so conditions vary a great deal more than they do inside the estuary — read the local signage on the day rather than assuming.
It is a small place, 1,886 residents at the 2011 census, and what is available to stay in reflects that: self-catering houses and apartments, and very little else. The South West Coast Path runs the length of this shore, south towards Hope Cove and Bolt Tail and north towards Bantham, and it is a gentler stretch than the cliffs beyond Bolt Head.