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Visit The Cornish Seal Sanctuary

Visit The Cornish Seal Sanctuary

Gweek, Near Falmouth

Meet the wildlife!

As well as keeping an eye out along the coast and in our expansive natural environment here in Cornwall, we have several amazing conservation organisations which care for wildlife as well as bringing them closer for us to see.

We’d like to tell you all about the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, situated about half an hour from Falmouth, at the top of the Helford River. They do wonderful rehabilitation work for marine mammals, as well as educating us visitors by allowing a close-up look at seals, puffins and beavers!

Seal Rescue Work

Each ‘pupping’ season, the sanctuary takes in around seventy seal pups from around the South West and nurses them back to health in the purpose-built seal hospital. The hospital can look after 6 pups at a time in this more intensive care stage, before moving the pups into an outdoor Convalescence Pool, (one of our favourites to watch them playing through the glass) and finally prepare the young seals for release back into the wild when they are fit and well!

Viewing Areas

The several outdoor pools which fill and empty of natural seawater are the best place to watch the seals play, both in and out of the water! They are built with glass sides so that you can see these incredible animals swimming, as well as jumping in and out to rest on the sides. Often they will interact with people and dogs coming past, too!

Both Grey Seals and Common Seals call the sanctuary home – some for short periods whilst they recover their full strength, but some will have forever homes here, if they aren’t fit enough to survive in the wild. All the seals have names, and often very distinct personalities too!

History of the Sanctuary

The first evolution of the seal sanctuary came in the winter of 1958, when a baby seal, only a few hours old, was found washed up on the beach at St Agnes by Ken Jones. Knowing it wouldn’t survive left on the shoreline, and living just 100 yards from the beach, Ken picked up the pup and took it home to his garden where he nursed it back to health.

For many years after that, Ken ran a rescue centre for stranded seals and oiled birds at St Agnes. He gained a reputation locally and began to receive more and more calls about injured seals…

Outgrowing the space, Ken had to find a larger site to build a permanent rescue centre and was offered land by the beautiful river Helford in Gweek in 1975. It was an extremely expensive project, but the result is the beginning of the Seal Sanctuary you see today.

Beyond Seals…

As the Sanctuary has grown in popularity, it has adapted to rehome, rehabilitate and re-introduce a number of different species. The latest additions are the Atlantic Puffins, who came to join the fun in April 2024…

They came from a sanctuary in Iceland and will all be long-term residents of their own purpose-built ‘Puffin Island’. Each has a reason they can’t be released into the wild, and have been lovingly named Alma, Billie, Disa, Freyja, Karen, Lundi, Odin, Sigurbjörg, Thor and Týr!

In 2021 the Sanctuary also welcomed its first pair of beavers, contributing to a national project reintroducing this special species to the UK. They explain why this is so important:

“Beavers are known as a “keystone species”. This is because their natural behaviour has a big impact on our landscape and wildlife. By damming waterways, beavers pool water, slowing the flow in rivers and streams. This water floods an area, creating new wetland and attracting wildlife, providing a home and water source for many species.”

A new ‘Beaver Nursery’ and ‘Secret Creek’ were built, and they now have two generations of beaver kits born at Gweek! They can be more elusive to actually catch a glimpse of when you visit, but there are lots of information boards and you can see their habitat, even if they are a little more shy than the seals and puffins which are guaranteed viewing…

Practicalities for Your Visit

Gweek is a tiny village at the top of the Helford River, and the Sanctuary is probably a couple of hours worth of visit (depending on how long you are transfixed by wildlife watching!) so you may wish to combine it with a trip to the Lizard or the gardens along the Helford…

Dogs on leads are very welcome at the Sanctuary, and it’s also brilliant for children. When visiting, you walk a reasonable distance between areas, so do factor in that it is quite an outdoor activity. There are accessibility buggies for those needing assistance, but for most visitors it’s a 10 minute wander across the site to reach the pools from the carpark and visitor centre.

When booking tickets, you can get 20% off if you purchase them online two days in advance, and once bought you have a year’s access to the Sanctuary (perfect for those guests who visit our cottages multiple times a year across the different seasons!)

The Sanctuary has a wonderful Instagram account where they share updates, recently including Sheba the seal’s 50th Birthday, and pictures of pups playing in the pools!

We know our guests have loved visiting in the past, and if you head there during your stay with us, we’d love to know how you found it and perhaps see a picture or two!