Porthemmet ten years on: The Cornish hoax that fooled a nation - Cornwall Live

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It was described as the best beach in Cornwall by The Cornish Times, it was the best place to see the Cornish chough (pronounced "koff" by locals) and it hosted the best pasty shop in the world.

For a while, ten years ago, everyone was talking about Porthemmet Beach on the North Cornwall coast. It was a Site of Amazing Natural Beauty and, in fact, the largest beach in the county.

Nature fan and one of The Goodies, Bill Oddie, even described Porthemmet and its surroundings as one of the "last remaining natural treasures of the British Isles".

It was the coolest beach in the Duchy because Cornwall's "most famous musicians" Richard James (Aphex Twin) and his mate and fellow electronic pioneer Luke Vibert once showed up on the beach in Richard's tank.

It was also the UK's most liberal beach as the local council ensured that police did not patrol Porthemmet as they distressed elderly inhabitants.

All of these facts were featured on the website www.porthemmet.com, which was set up in 2007 to promote this sandy jewel in Cornwall's crown.

Locals were already suspicious as, of course, Porthemmet incorporated the word the Cornish call tourists. The site actually encouraged visitors to say they were an emmet, a "person who loved Cornwall".

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The Cornish were already laughing when it soon became apparent that this was a cleverly orchestrated hoax.

The website's creator, Jonty Haywood from Truro, said he was inspired by a similar hoax about an Ice Bar in a Scandinavian city.

He denied the hoax was a way of promoting Cornish nationalism by having a pop at the tourist industry which helps to sustain Cornwall's economy. It was actually about the comedy value of sending visitors across Cornwall to "find an imaginary beach".

Those in the know – basically, the whole of Cornwall – saw the humour in the encouragement of mispronunciations ("Be sure to pronounce it 'parsty' unless you want to be laughed at") and the fact that the beach was named after Saint Emmet, brother of Saint Piran.

The website even clicks though to a gift shop where you can "buy" Porthemmet T-shirts.

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Porthemmet signs actually sprung up in the county in 2008 – also the work of Haywood. Anyone following the directions ended up leaving Cornwall on the A30.

Visit Cornwall, the county's tourism board, criticised the website and others thought it reflected badly on rural Cornish communities who needed tourism revenue for survival. However, the 2,000 people who joined Porthemmet's Facebook page saw the funny side as did readers of The Times, The Independent and our own Cornish Guardian, which all covered the hoax story.

Let's remember the rather brilliant act of tomfoolery with a quote from the site: "It should be noted that there is a private joke in Cornwall whereby locals will pretend to not know where Porthemmet Beach is. Don't be fooled, every Cornish person knows about this beach, they are just having some fun."

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