About
Port St. Mary Beach or Chapel Beach, as it is also known, is situated in the south-east of the Island and has a pretty, sandy, sheltered beach. Port St. Mary has a small, but busy yacht harbour with fishing and sailing boats regularly coming and going.
With the breakwater keeping the tumultuous waves out, you can enjoy the calm and peaceful waters of the bay either through swimming, diving or simply dipping your feet in the water. It also has a swimmers' raft.
The beach is close to Port St. Mary village and facilities include cafes, toilets, small independent shops, a bus service and a pub as well as the yacht club. From Chapel Beach you can take a stroll over the "cat-walk" which leads to the inner and outer harbours.
The outer harbour offers some excellent pier fishing from the breakwater and in the berth for Port St Mary's RNLI lifeboat.
On from the harbour you can take a walk to the pavillion at Port St. Mary's nine-hole golf course for some refreshments. Going north from Port St. Mary is an easy walk on the flat to Gansey Bay which is popular with windsurfers and sea sports enthusiasts. This is also on the coastal path, and you can enjoy a leisurely accessible walk south around the harbour and Port St Mary Heritage Trail or join the Raad ny Foillan coastal path at this point passing Fleshwick Bay and continuing on to The Sound.
Find other ways to enjoy this coastal spot using the Port St Mary Blueway Trail.
Fishing:
There is a great variety of angling opportunities around Port St Mary. Gansey Bay (Baie Ny Carrickey) offers good beach fishing. Locals often fish from the end of the harbour wall. Typical species caught from the shores around around Port St. Mary include pollack, wrasse, grey mullet, mackerel and coalfish. Port St Mary Ledges, close to the harbour, offer a long stretch of rocks with easy access (avoid when waves are large) and rocks at nearby Perwick Bay are worth a try and may even yield the odd tope.
The best fishing tends to be on the incoming tide three hours before high water, and a couple of hours after. Let someone know where you are intending to fish before you go, and when fishing rock marks, be aware of the state of the tide and keep an eye on rising water to avoid being cut off from the shore.
Facilities
Provider Facilities
- Dog Friendly
