Short answer: From 1 October, all 46 council-restricted beaches in Cornwall reopen to dogs all day. The bans return on 15 May (Blue Flag beaches) or 1 July (the rest). Everything else was open all year anyway.
On 1 October the sand comes back. Every one of the 46 beaches on Cornwall Council's seasonal dog order drops its daytime ban, and for the next seven months the county's beaches are open to dogs from dawn to dusk. Autumn is also when the beaches empty, the light gets dramatic and the surf picks up — for many people it's simply the best time to be on a Cornish beach with a dog.
Cornwall Council's seasonal order covers 46 beaches. On most of them dogs are banned between 10am and 6pm from 1 July to 31 August; on the Blue Flag and Seaside Award beaches the ban runs longer, 15 May to 30 September. Outside those dates and times there are no council restrictions at all. Hundreds of other Cornish beaches are never restricted. A few privately owned beaches set their own rules, and signs at the beach entrance are always the final word — the official list is on Cornwall Council's dogs-on-beaches page.
The autumn beach is still shared. Pick up every time, keep dogs off other people's picnics and out of the surf-school lines, and put leads on near wildlife: grey seals haul out on quiet beaches through the autumn pupping season, and the estuaries fill with wintering birds. The summer rules exist because some of this went wrong once; the winter freedom lasts as long as it goes right.
Big autumn tides come in fast across flat beaches — keep half an eye on the water during a long fetch session — and a towel in the car is not optional. Dog-friendly places to dry off afterwards are in every town guide, filtered by dog.
Rules, hours and programmes are the owners' to change — check the signs on the day or the official page before you travel. Spotted something we've got wrong? Tell us and we'll fix it.
See the full Newquay guide, filtered by who's with you.
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