Provided is a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head capable of setting the near-field light (NFL-) emission point to be sufficiently close to the write-field-generating portion. The head comprises a magnetic pole, a waveguide propagating light, and a NFL-generator coupled with the light in surface plasmon mode. The NFL-generator comprises a propagation edge extending to the NFL-generating end surface, at least a portion of the propagation edge being opposed to the waveguide with a distance, and the magnetic pole has a surface contact with a surface portion of the NFL-generator including no propagation edge. Therefore, the distance between the magnetic-pole end surface and the NFL-generating end surface becomes zero. The propagation edge is not contacted with the magnetic pole. Accordingly, the surface plasmon can propagate along on the propagation edge without being absorbed by the pole. Thus, the NFL-emission point is ensured to be at the end point of the propagation edge.