Starehole Bay
Starehole Bay is a little bay in the south of Devon at the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary as it opens into the English Channel.
The bay is formed between the furthermost point of Bolt Head and Sharp Tor, and has a little tidal beach, though one little frequented. The bay is only accessible by boat or from the cliff-top walk out from Salcombe past North Sands, South Sands, and along the coastal path by way of Sharp Tor towards Bolt Head. The beach has a small cove, with rocky spurs reaching into the sea. The bay is very sheltered and it usually has extremely flat water.
On 25 January 1937, the Herzogin Cecelia with a cargo of rice from Australia ran aground on the Ham Rock at the mouth of Starehole Bay. The crew were rescued, their luggage stolen by local men in what has been described as a riot. For months she lay striken, her crago fermenting and rotting in the hold, until beached in Starehole Bay and partly broken up as salvage. The remains of the wreck and still beneath the waters here, appearing at low tide.[1]
