Fowey is a deep-water port of stacked cottages on the south coast, ranged up a wooded hillside above a tidal river. Daphne du Maurier lived and wrote here, her study looking across to Polruan on the far bank. China clay is still shipped out of the upper river; pilot gigs race on the lower. Steep lanes, a crenellated sea wall, and ferries across the river to Polruan make it one of Cornwall's most atmospheric small towns.