A recent re-visit to Stackhouse Cove revealed a surprising discovery: there may be a third bath to add to the two we have written about before.

We have not found any mention of this in any literature and so it is very speculative but it is undoubtedly a very nice open air sea water bath. The only disadvantage is that it is only exposed at fairly low tides.

Bath 1 is the fresh water bath, cut into the cliff for Mrs Stackhouse (which we were pleased to see was attracting a fairly regular stream of admiring visitors).

Bath 2 is the sea water bath on the eastern side of the cove which shows clear evidence of man’s intervention in its creation.

This new bath is at the western side of the cove and shows no obvious signs of man’s handiwork but it hardly needs it as it easily accessible at the right tides.

Why, we wonder, did John Stackhouse go to the effort of having a seawater bath cut out of the rocks on the eastern side if this natural bath was already available? Or, could it be like the layout at Portreath where the ‘private’ individual baths (for the ladies?) were on one side of the cove, and a larger communal swimming pool was left on the other side (for the gentlemen?).

This bath has the advantage of a sandy floor and an easy, sloping access from the rocks.

You can find it here.