Port Isaac Parking: The Flattest Way Down

Short answer: Honest answer: every route into Port Isaac involves a hill. The main top car park is the standard steep walk; Port Gaverne next door is the gentler-start alternative; and eating at the top is the zero-descent cheat.

The honest starting point

Port Isaac is a fishing village poured into a steep-sided cove — the steepness is the picturesqueness. Anyone promising you flat parking here is selling something. What actually exists are better and worse ways to manage the hill, and one genuine cheat.

The options, compared

• The main car park (top of the village) — the standard answer. You walk down into the village and — the bit people forget — back up at the end. The descent is steep but short; take it slowly and it's manageable for most, but it's genuinely hard work with a wheelchair or a heavy pushchair, and there's no sugar-coating that.
• Driving down to the harbour — don't, in season. The lanes are barely car-width, pedestrians own them, and turning at the bottom is a spectator sport. Out of season a quick drop-off of a less-mobile passenger near the bottom is more feasible — one person dashes, the driver returns to the top.
• Port Gaverne (the cheat's neighbour) — the next cove along has parking much nearer its own sea level. From there it's the coast path over the headland into Port Isaac: shorter and gentler at the start than the main descent, though still a genuine up-and-over with uneven ground. It also means Port Gaverne's own sheltered beach and Pilchards are your fallback if the hill wins.

The zero-descent cheat

If the hill is a hard no, stay at the top: The VIEW restaurant sits by the upper village with the coastline laid out below — you get the Port Isaac panorama with no descent at all. Between that and Port Gaverne, nobody has to be defeated by the geography.

Timing the hill

Two things make the walk easier: going early (cool, quiet, and space in the top car park, which fills by late morning in season) and going out of season, when you could reasonably be dropped lower down. Wear real shoes — the lower lanes are part-cobbled and slick when wet.

Once you're down

The village pays for the climb: the Platt, the harbour, Outlaw's Fish Kitchen and the lanes Doc Martin made famous. Our Port Isaac guide covers it all — including the dog-friendly indoor dining next time it rains.