Pentewan (Cornish: Bentewyn, meaning foot of the radiant stream) is a coastal village and former port in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

The village and its harbour date back to medieval times, when Pentewan was mainly a fishing community, with some stone-quarrying, tin-streaming, and agriculture.

Leland, writing in 1549, referred briefly to 'Pentowan' as "a sandy bay witherto fischer bootes repair for socour".

At its peak, Pentewan shipped a third of Cornwall's china clay, but continual problems with silting (caused by tin and clay mining) and the rise of the rival ports of Charlestown and Par Docks meant that Pentewan's status as a port lasted for little more than a century.

The tin streamers considered both to be places where "the old men had been", since they uncovered charcoal ashes, human remains, and bones of animals "of a different description from any now known in Britain".

It was subsequently held by the families of Pentire, Roscarrock, Dart, and Robartes (the Earls of Radnor), then by Sir James La Roche, the MP for Bodmin (1768–80), and (in 1792) by the Rev.

[8] A pill box was erected in the harbour and the beach mined as part of the dragon's teeth anti-tank defences.

[2] Bombs fell near Pentewan in 1941[9] and an air raid on the port in August 1942 destroyed the Methodist chapel[10] and damaged several houses.

Some – including All Saints Church, completed in 1821 – were built by Sir Christopher Hawkins as part of his long campaign to improve the village.