Whilst many may associate Falmouth with the small town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, what many might not actually know is that Falmouth is actually a harbour town located in Cornwall, the far South West county of the UK.
Falmouth MA was colonised by the British in 1660 - hence the Massachusetts Falmouth probably derives its name from the small Cornish harbour town.
Falmouth, Cornwall boasts fine beaches to rival that of any Mediterranean destination - alas the weather in the UK isn't as amenable to sun bathing and swimming as it is on a Greek or Spanish Balearic island. Still, the coastal walks, gazing in rock pools and the quaint beach huts all make it quintessentially British.
Beach huts
Beach huts are a strange phenomena. They became popular around most of the British coastline around the early part of the twentieth century, mainly because the bathing huts where men and women changed separately and walked straight into the water were becoming cumbersome to keep lugging into the water. The beach hut was a great way to combat this; get changed in private, go into the sea. In fact, the initial beach huts were the abandoned bathing machines with their wheels removed and placed on land!
Nowadays beach huts can be rented or owned and as they are becoming very fashionable, range in cost from £6,000 to £35,000 to buy! That really is saying something, considering there are by-laws that state you cannot sleep overnight in them.
The average beachut is 8′ x 12′ (feet) with a height of 6′ 9" (feet and inches) and most people have bottled gas stoves inside to make themselves that very British cup of tea whilst huddling in a blanket or towel because it's too cold to go inside the water.
When I visited Falmouth in the summer of 2016, I self-catered for three nights and had a wonderful time. As well as peaceful coastal walks, you can;
Cream tea anyone?
Cream teas - along with Ploughmans - are another quintessentially British thing, this time the food. It consists of a scone (pronounced 'o' as in orange, not 'owwwww' as in an expression of surprise) that comes with strawberry jam and clotted cream; an exceedingly thick cream made by heating full cream and then left to cool. The cream content rises and 'clots' - thus clotted cream is made. It's delicious, and bad for the arteries!
A ploughman's is made up of chunks of very mature cheddar cheese served with pickle, coleslaw, salad and bread rolls. Sometimes a boiled egg too. Delicious!
I won't hesitate to return to Falmouth again.