This is the charming UK seaside village with only 30 residents left
- UK Hidden Gems
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
In one charming seaside village, it is rumoured that only around 30 locals remain once the tourists leave.
Known for second homes, day visitors and TV fans, this coastal spot has been drawing people in for many years.
What was once a quiet fishing community now welcomes crowds who come to enjoy the sea air, narrow winding streets, white cottages and a busy harbour where crab and lobster are still landed.
Like many Cornish villages, it becomes packed in summer but falls quiet in winter, leaving residents and local shops to cope with the change.
Because the numbers rise and fall so much, reports put the population at anywhere between 700 and 1,500.
Yet local rumours claim that in the lower part of Port Isaac, as few as 30 people live there all year round, according to The Telegraph.
One reason for this low number is that many chose to move up the hill to the newer part of Port Isaac. Here they have more space and less chance of flooding compared to the small 18th-century cottages in the historic centre.
Just three years ago, sections of the sea wall in Port Isaac’s famous harbour were falling apart.
Harbour commissioners warned that with fewer working boats, there was no longer enough money to carry out repairs, reported Cornwall Live.
If the defences were not maintained, the lower part of the village would face regular flooding and become “unsustainable and uninsurable” for the people living there.
The village became even more popular thanks to the ITV show Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes. Fans travel from all over the world to see the locations where the series was filmed, which some locals say has made the area harder to live in.
Local mum-of-two Anne Wilce, 44, told The Sun the village has completely changed. She said: “It is awful, there is no affordable housing left for anyone here.”
Anne explained that while Doc Martin brought money and jobs, it also made the area too popular. She added that it no longer feels like the same village for those who grew up there.
A Cornwall Council report found that the St Endellion parish, which includes Port Isaac, has one of the highest levels of second-home ownership in Cornwall. This makes it hard to know the true size of its permanent population.
Figures from RightMove show that the average house price in Port Isaac reached £394,386 over the past year, highlighting how costly it has become to buy a home in the area.
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Litter tends to spread, so if you see any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the hidden gem, it will help keep the area tidy.
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