Cawsand beach

Cawsand and Kingsand are two cojoined coastal fishing villages in south east Cornwall. The border between Devon and Cornwall used to cut the village of Kingsand in two and there is a house that straddles the two counties, with the left half of the house in Devon and the right side of it in Cornwall. The border is now the River Tamar. Cawsand was a notorious "pirating" village in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pirates smuggled their ill gotten goods ashore here and hid it in caves along the shoreline and secret hiding places in their homes. The goods had to be rowed ashore from the "mother ship" before the customs men could catch them and this led to an army of very fast little boats called "Gigs" that were developed throughout coastal Cornwall. There is still a thriving Gig flotilla in Cornwall, but these days they are used for racing. Gig racing is a popular inter village sport throughout Cornwall. Cawsand has a flourishing Gig racing club and they can be seen training and racing throughout the summer months. This is the beach from which the Cawsand Gigs are launched.