Start at the Slipway, Not the Car Park

Most families arrive at a Cornish harbour and head straight for the shops. Do the opposite. Park where you are told to park — usually a pay-and-display field a few minutes' walk uphill — then come down to the slipway first and simply stand still for ten minutes. The slipway is where a harbour explains itself. You will see the gradient of the granite, the seaweed line that marks how high the tide reached last night, and the winch cables that haul boats clear of the water. Point these out to children before anything else and the rest of the day makes sense.

Time your visit around the tide rather than the clock. Fishing boats in small Cornish harbours work the tide, so landings cluster roughly two hours either side of high water. Check a tide table the night before — they are posted at the harbour office, printed in local papers and available from most newsagents. An early start genuinely pays off: by half past nine you may already have missed the busiest hour on the quay.

Reading the Harbour's Mining Past

It is easy to think of Cornwall's heritage as either mining or fishing. In truth the two were tangled together for centuries. The harbours that still function today were often built or enlarged to ship out copper and tin ore and to bring in coal, timber and mining machinery. Look for the clues as you walk the quay: stretches of wall built from waste rock, warehouses with unusually small windows, and deep, sturdy mooring rings set into the stone where flat-bottomed barges once tied up.

Ask children to spot the word "wheal" on any nearby sign or street name. It comes from the Cornish hwel, meaning a mine working, and it survives all over the county. A short walk inland from most heritage harbours will bring you to a chimney stack, a leat or the flat platform of an old engine house. Explain simply that the engine house held a beam engine, which pumped water out of the shafts so men could work deeper underground. Tin and copper ore went down to the harbour by cart and, later, by tramroad, and was loaded onto ships for smelting elsewhere.

Boats, Nets and the Morning Catch

Back on the quay, keep behind the yellow lines and let the crew work. Children are usually fascinated by the practical detail: the ice going into boxes, the crates being stacked, the way a skipper reverses a boat into a tight berth using nothing but the throttle and a rope. If you are lucky, you will see a net being mended or a lobster pot being rebaited on the quayside.

• Ask before photographing anyone working, particularly close up.
• Never stand between a boat and the edge, and never under a swinging load.
• Keep dogs on a short lead on the quay — there is usually food waste and bait about.
• Explain the terms as you go: a lugger was a small sailing fishing boat, a seine net was shot in a circle to surround a shoal, and pilchards were once so important that they were salted and pressed in cellars along this coast.

Traditional Crafts You Can Watch

The best heritage harbours keep working crafts alive rather than freezing them behind glass. Look out for a net loft, a small boatbuilding shed, a blacksmith or a ropewalk, and check opening times before you travel — many are run by volunteers and open only a few days a week.

If there is a boatbuilder on site, stop and watch for a while. Clinker-built hulls, where each plank overlaps the one below, are still made by hand here, and the smell of hot pitch and sawdust is part of the experience. Net-making is worth a few minutes too; the knot is repetitive and almost hypnotic, and children often pick it up faster than adults. Rope-making, sail repair, crab pot weaving and traditional chandlery all survive in pockets along the Cornish coast, usually funded by small museums and heritage trusts.

Lunch, Ice Cream and a Bit of Practical Sense

By midday you will have earned a pasty. Buy from a bakery rather than a souvenir shop and eat it sitting on the harbour wall, facing the water — but check the wind direction first, because gulls here are bold and accurate. Fresh crab sandwiches, fish and chips and locally made ice cream are the other reliable options, and most harbour towns have at least one café with a children's menu.

A few things worth packing, whatever the forecast:

• Wellies or grippy trainers — harbour stones are slick with weed and fish oil.
• Sun cream and hats, because there is very little shade on a quay.
• A change of clothes for anyone likely to find a puddle.
• Cash, as some smaller stalls and museum honesty boxes still prefer it.

Treat the harbour as a workplace, not a playground. There is no railing on many quays and the water is deeper and colder than it looks.

An Afternoon Walk and the Trip Home

After lunch, follow the coast path for twenty minutes in either direction and the day doubles in value. You will often pass the remains of a pilchard cellar, a lime kiln or a capstan, and the view back over the harbour gives a clear sense of why the settlement sits where it does: shelter from the prevailing south-westerlies, deep water close inshore, and a steep valley behind for the mine workings.

Finish with a wander around the museum if one is open, then let the children spend their pocket money on something small and genuinely local. Leave before the car park queue builds in the late afternoon. On the drive home, ask what everyone remembers most — it is rarely the gift shop, and almost always the moment a boat came in.