Be careful what you wish for, is a saying which I think is becoming a reality in Cornwall. Very quiet throughout Cornwall this year. Lots of properties on the market, and plenty of seating in those very expensive eateries for the locals. Whether you like it or not Cornwall totally depends on tourism. So sad it’s not more welcoming from the people who depend on it. Love your vlog
Dear Sarah&Andrew , we went to Port Issac 6 years ago without knowing anything about Doc Martin , and we instantly fell in love with this beautiful place(my favourite in cornwall)it is just so tranquil and beautiful there(in spring ) and the people are so nice and welcoming.Thank you for showing, greetings from Hamburg.Btw ,Doc Martin quickly became one of our favourite series😂
We were walking the coastal path and stayed overnight in Port Isaac in July 2017 without knowing very much about Doc Martin. We stayed at the Old School Hotel and loved it. They were filming series 8 at the time, and the village was packed with people. Of course, it was summer and the show was currrently being sent on TV. Perhaps people don't visit so much in October? I am sure fewer are walking the coastal path too in the autumn. I see now that the chain and the "Private Property" sign is removed from the entrance of the "Surgery". I guess that means that they are not as bothered by visitors as they used to be, and don't need to fence it off anymore. The village is beautiful and the views from the bench are great. I hope they get more vistors again in the warmer seasons. Thank you for again a lovely video. Torunn 🥰
Hi Sarah and Andrew….I loved that show….thank you for bringing us back to that pretty place. Quiet indeed! Hopefully it will pick up again….i would love to take a picture in front of the surgery….hopefully it was just a quiet day! Because those shops are lovely and eating places sad they are closed….i would still go just the same! Thank you for sharing…be well! 🙂
I first fell in love with Port Isaac in the 1960’s when it was a regular place to spend a day out when on caravan holidays to Cornwall with my Mum, Dad and Brother. We loved the north Cornish coast and came back every year for many years. I didn’t visit again for a long time but eventually moved to Hartland in North Devon and had a wonderful time revisiting all my favourite childhood places including Port Isaac. Nothing much seemed to have changed in the interim years and I still loved it. I wasn’t a Doc Martin fan so was a bit put out by the whole Doc Martin pilgrimage thing! Strangely though I’ve recently watch all ten series of Doc M and thoroughly enjoyed them, so I guess next time I visit I might well have morphed into a fan on pilgrimage 😂
Surely this is a matter of timing. We visited in the last week of September and it was busy, not too crowded. we managed to get the last parking space in the upper level of New Rd carpark mid morning. More of the shops and restaurants were open, not packed out, and we heard a few different accents. So the draw of the Doc is still there ,but perhaps not in chilly October. And don't forget both Doc Martin and Fisherman's Friends are still available on streaming for a new audience.
The Padstow speedboat Man says the only people visiting Cornwall from September are 'The newly weds and the nearly deads!' which tickled me as we went in September and I suppose we are airing on the nearly dead side although he diplomatically referred to us as newly weds!😂
Sarah and Andrew thank you for the beautiful port Issac video loved it not been since 1986 going to have to go yes got come back Doc Marin series 11 I miss it watch repeats itv3 still
Saving Grace is one of my favourite films (forerunner of Doc Martin). Hilarious film ! We always come down around fireworks week so will be interesting to see if it’s quite tied than in previous years.
Hi, I really like your videos, keep it up please. My wife and I visited in early October and really enjoyed it. Lovely place, excellent lunch with locally caught fish. Would like to go again and possibly stay. Yes the Tv series helped to promote it but it’s so beautiful it “sells” itself. Loved it.
Andrew and Sarah ...thank you for your vlog; this was my favourite area(Cornwall) to visit years ago when I went to England. It is nice to see that it has not altered too too much over all this time. Still the characteristic scenic views and eateries. It is not easy to hold on to history....good job.!sorry to see some the shops have closed though...that's too bad.
Dear Sarah and Andrew, as a born Cornish man “Liskeard” your film on port Issac you did not take up about the fishermen friends filmed there in 2019 and 2022 I try and visit Cornwall as much as I can as I live in the South Yorkshire hills “Barnsley “. I always watch your videos as it helps me remember home. Where I was born, 😊 Love your videos and I have been a subscriber since 2022.
We were there in early June and it was packed! Needed reservations at any restaurant for dinner, otherwise the waits were long. After seeing your video, we are thinking of returning in October to visit during a quieter time! We always stay at Slipway😊
😂 June is a favoured month for visitors without commitment to school terms! As you can see, October is quieter although a bigger resort will have more open like restaurants and pubs etc. But if you like it quiet, Port Isaac in October is the choice! Sarah :)
Such a lovely place. Could be people's memories are short. We didn't get to visit Cornwall this year, hopefully next year. It will be interesting to see if it is less busy. Thanks so much for all you do.
We visited in 1999 on our first holiday together while visiting my husbands grandad. Only been together a couple of months and now married 23 years. Always been a special place before Doc Martin. Also stayed at the Slipway for our joint 50th birthday celebration in 2018 which was lovely but much busier !!!
Some friends and I stayed for a week on Port Isaac, in early September, - I think it was called Dolphin House and had previously been the Dolphin pub, the years before it was filmed (2003?). I remember it being fairly busy, but not so busy that we couldn't get a table in the pub. With or without the doc, it's a beautiful village and we still visit often. We stayed at the Old School Hotel in the summer of 2021. We loved The Doc Martin series.
Living in Coventry, I'm very conscious of the filming sets for "Keeping up Appearances", the home of Onslow, in Stoke Aldermoor in contrast to the home of Hyacinth in Binley Woods. Even though the comedy is still viewed on catch up channels, there is very little interest by the public when passing any of the locations. Cornwall at least has its own delights. It's s long walk to any sea front from Binley. So enjoyed your re-visit & assesment. Thank you.
Don’t forget there is a ‘cost of living crisis’ in the UK and it’s midweek! Just like Kingsands and Cawsands in East Cornwall, empty out of season and the houses, second homers have taken over the two villages! 🥺 🙏👍
Hi Sarah and Andrew. Love your tours and walks around Cornwall. My wife and I visited Post Isaac in September 2016 and enjoyed our visit to Doc Martin land. Yes, it was busy as it was “shoulder season” for tourism. Your video is in October and I think you are too late to see all the visitors who have gone to sunnier locales for vacation. Please send a delicious Cornwall pasty 😂😂😂
Hi Sarah and Andrew - another great video! I have to say I've never watched an episode of Doc Marten, but I do love Port Isaac. I think tourists have deserted Portwenn to go to Shipton Abbot - Looe was packed last summer. (I've never watched an episode of Beyond Paradise, either, mind, despite living in Looe - not having a TV helps!). Anyway, thanks for the entertaining video, I always look forward to them.
Wow..I never thought they started Doc Martin more than 20 years ago…time flys 😂 I stumbled across the series about 2016 on German TV and of course bought the whole Thing😂…I think in the hay days they sold their old cottages for extra ordinary prices and now it’s more a ghost towns in the off season, very sad…but its still such a lovely place, I would love to visit one day….Thanks ❤❤❤
We visited on the same day as yourselves, we did see you. We were disappointed with the appearance of the village having visited many times before. We thought it all looked a little shabby. The Slipway cafe/restaurant definitely wasn't inviting We thought it was closed. We did do the photo outside the Docs house though!
Another excellent video you two 😁 Having just watched your video I went to Google Maps and guess what? The venues like Golden Lion etc were all noted as “Less busy than usual” and this is on a Friday evening. However I suppose it’s worth bearing in mind this the end of October.
We have been coming to Cornwall for over 10 years, always visiting the west side. This year we decided on the top and bottom of the County. We came at the beginning of September and visted Port Isacc, deciding to arrive early for the very reason that it would be busy later in the day... it was dead as a Dodo! But moreover we found it very unwelcoming! Having had our car damaged on several occasions parking in car parks, we always park responsibly and courteously in side streets and could not believe the amount of signage everywhere; no parking, do not park here, residents only and even a side road that was clearly residential but had signage stating it was a private road for residents only, which with no yellow lines etc. It clearly wasn't. If the Doc Martin phenomena is no more, it would probably be advisable to lift restrictions as locals clearly still don't want tourists coming, even though the show has now finished.
On the whole I think most Cornish villages are quieter earlier in the year & in October...it's the reason we used to visit at those times of the year, when we were younger. I remember walking along from that car park & seeing baby seagulls on the cliffs & a huge ginger cat😺on the wall by the bench you stopped at! I did like Doc Martin but never did watch the whole of the series...my love of course was Poldark!💖 And I wonder if the interest in the filming areas has waned a bit surrounding that series too since its end? Charlestown for instance? The whole area around Port Isaac is just lovely at any time of the year. Just wish with all my heart I was well enough to come back & visit once again....but love watching your videos every week as I have done for a long long time now! 😊x J x
Loved New Road car park. Introduced to it by some vloggers. Got one of the last spaces. Able to walk right into Port Isaac proper with amazing views. You must try to get into this car park. Can’t find a soul…there will always be seagulls to keep you company!
I haven’t watched Doc Martin but called in at Port Issac as part of our tour of Cornwall in early September this year. It was quite busy then, even though it was quite cold and windy. That empty place you showed with the canopy over was very full then. On the beach I found an old iPhone that had washed up, I wonder what the story was there…?
It's always been a place that really only buzzes in the main Sumner months .. and tbh thrs a lot of shots were thr are throngs of people behind you .. then well chosen shots were there is no one visible 🤔👍😂 Love your channel 👍🙂
Roughly Easter to end of September, with busy weeks being Easter, end of May (school half term) and school summer break from last week in July to first week in September. Sarah :)
The fans of a Cornwall will always come, I think the pandemic boom years are finished though. England as a whole is slowly deteriorating and I think the fewer visitors this year are symptomatic of that.The picturesque villages are going to struggle if they don’t get visitors to the many properties.
It still looks a lovely place to visit. Am I wrong or did they film Fisherman's Friends there too? Still on my bucket list for future walking holidays. Thanks for another lovely podcast. ♥️
Hi Sarah and Andrew….my son and I went to Port Issac on the morning of Oct 2nd this year…must have just missed you haha! Sadly it poured with rain, was misty and very grey, so we basically walked in, through and then back again! We certainly didn’t have the day we had hoped for. There were however quite a lot of people about and some doing the Doc Martin tour…Americans I believe. Anyway……I guess I will have to go again on a better day and really have time to explore! Best wishes Julie 😊ps someone my son spoke to said it was rammed in the summer months as usual
I don't think the 'Doc Martin' effect has worn-off. You were just a week or so too late, in a year when Cornish tourism has been poor. I am not surprised. Cornwall has become very expensive to visit, money grabbing car parks haven't helped either, with seemingly any opportunity to issue swinging fines eagerly taken, leaving a bad taste in visitors mouths. Throw into the mix atrocious UK weather over the last two years, and the result could have been predicted. Were you aware that the Boathouse shop is owned by Jon Cleave and his wife Caroline - he is one of the founder members of the Fisherman's Friends (the one with the walrus moustache). Amongst other things he also writes books for children and wrote the hilarious book 'Nasty Pasty' for adults. I recommend you get a copy ....as Pasty lovers (Andrew) you will be belly laughing from start to end....much in the style of the 'Wilt' series by Tom Sharpe. You will recognise many fictional characters. 'The Mote' restaurant didn't get a mention....so I will just say their Burgers (which they had to serve ON the Platt during 2020/21) are epic....in fact the whole menu is delicious. My guess is that few locals on Cornish salaries can afford the prices. It must make residential life dis-spiriting. No one likes to be reminded of what they cant afford! There are so many homes now owned by outsiders in Port Isaac, that I fear it will become a ghost town in close season, leading to more shops shutting during winter. This I find very sad, and probably a direct result of the 'Doc Martin' effect. Even the house used as the surgery, is a rental property. This can be seen in places like Salcombe in Devon where it has a post apocalyptic feel in winter. I met Ian McNeice (Bert Large) in our village pub. Apparently he was born in the area. He has done so much to raise funds for the RNLI in Port Isaac over the years, and still returns. He is the most wonderful and natural, good humoured chap you could wish to meet....even down to the bobble hat. And is a great ambassador for the region.
Totally agree about people who live in Cornwall can't afford the restaurant prices and car parking...and let's face it... that's who they should be encouraging during the quieter periods 🤷👍
The last time I went to Port Isaac it was 1967. Was it busy in October last year and year before? Everyone is going abroad now to get some sun. I want to go to Nathan Outlaws, but finding nearby accommodation is difficult. Fern Cottage sold for £900k. Tracey x
We went to Port Isaac when we stayed in a holiday cottage at Delabole. It struck up that Port Isaac is not the friendly and easy-going place depicted in the television series! Although Doc Martin is funny, the show is unpleasant, and demonstrates bad values. Many of the medical scenarios depicted are ridiculous and a Doctor could not behave like that! Although Doc Martin is quite fun to watch, it is a total misrepresentation of Cornwall. Thanks for uploading.
....Its a comedy. Lighten up a little, please. There was another series in the past called Wild West.....much darker and maybe a little too close for comfort for residential Cornish life! Based in Portloe (St Gweep) with Dawn French, Catherin Tate and the excellent David Bradley. Even the local copper was Stewart Wright (aka Mark Mylow) PC Alan Allen. I often think this was partly a template for Doc Martin! Don't think I have seen a video of Andrew and Sarah exploring Portloe and the Lugger Hotel? I loved the series, but again, I don't think the locals were too enamoured....they seem to get upset when the Cornish accent and unusual Cornish logic is portrayed. I think they feel it makes them look stupid....whereas it just endears them even more to everyone else - many Cornish folk (from my experience) didn't like Jethro for the same reason....everyone else loved him.
But the Doc Martin series is not set in Port Isaac, it's set in Portwen, which is a fictional village with a school, local Bobby and local GP...pure fiction.
I really like the look of Port Isaac & would love to stay there next summer but would I be able to swim in the sea there or is there a lot of sewage pollution like there is in the sea near to Totnes in Devon?
Gosh it's gone back to how it was years ago before Doc Martin when we used to go down . Trouble is people would of got used to the money coming in and now it's drying up some will be bound to struggle. Shame. Sadly nothing lasts for ever in that way so I guess other ideas will have to be thought of 😊
Born here nr lands end i dont have a problem with people visiting but is getting way out of control now its to many . It cant be much fun coming here and finding out its no different from where you have come from same amount of trafic people everyware I thought a holiday was to get away from all that crap . now you can even swim in your own poop if you want to lovley ,and if it rains there is bugger all to do just drive around cloging up the roads along with everyone else.And stop crashing your cars everyday its a pain in the ass
Do you think it might be worth doing it in the summer cause not a lot of people have holidays the end of October cause I know someone who went there in the summer this year and they said there was loads of people about and lots of people looking for Doc Martin placesso maybe October Norco time to make this video
I run a shop in North Devon that relies heavily on tourism, we have been so quiet all year, the whole area would say the same not just my line of work. I’m surprised you guys haven’t seen a decline in people until now, I wonder if you cast your minds back to all of this seasons videos & think we’re the locations as rammed as usual, I think you’ll find they were probably 20-30% quieter. The pressure is on people’s finances this year with interest rates, inflation, energy pricing……a lot of people, no, an awful lot of people have taken advantage of cheep continental breaks.
Yes, I totally agree. We are very aware that there has been a lot less visitors this year. Local papers are now reporting business failures in the tourism sector. Port Isaac had immunity to the seasons during the period of filming, holding one of the top places in the Cornish league table under St Ives, but we thought it looked more like pre-Doc Martin days, when it was a beautiful but quiet back water. Unlike Newquay or Perranporth that offer more activities including surfing and beach life, we wondered if Port Isaac is vulnerable to slipping down the Cornish league table once again. Sarah :)
Dreadful place, Cornwall. An excellent example of how humans destroy everything they touch. A mixture of over priced, over crowded, inaccessible quaint places like Port Issac and over priced, over crowded, inaccessible shite holes like Newquay.
