To provide a perpendicular magnetic recording head which can prevent unintentional recording and erasing from occurring on recording media.In a perpendicular magnetic recording head comprising a pair of side shield layers made of a soft magnetic material on both sides in a track width direction of a magnetic pole part of a main magnetic pole layer, the pair of side shield layers have a front end face exposed at a medium-opposing surface and a side end face extending from one end part of the front end face remote from the magnetic pole part in the track width direction to the deeper side in a height direction, while the front end face and the side end face form an angle of 90° or greater therebetween.