Whether you’re a visitor or local to Cornwall, a weekend exploring St Ives and the western toe of our sea-lashed county will fill you to the gills with wild coastal scenery, art and culture, and world-class food. Its magic is engrained in every footstep along its streets, harbour, coast path and beaches; in the taste of every mouthful of just-caught fish or cool local ice cream; and in its culture oozing out of the many galleries and historic inns.
It’s a place I’ve returned to time and time again. Each visit leaving me wanting more. A weekend in its embrace never seems enough. But with only 48 hours to spare, here’s what we packed into our latest visit to St Ives and West Penwith this spring.
Follow in our footsteps for a sublime weekender in and around St Ives:
Daytime: Lamorna Cove and Pedn-Vounder
Nothing feels more authentically Cornish than winding down a single track lane to emerge at a picture-postcard cove where granite boulders tumble to the edge of the sea. Once the haunt of artists and authors (Derek and Jean Tangye famously wrote The Minack Chronicles here), Lamorna Cove is home to a handful of granite cottages, dwarfed by dramatic, rocky territory that butts up against the shimmering cobalt ocean.
With an alfresco seat at the café, even on the calmest days, the soundtrack is the rumble of the water’s ebb and flow over the boulders. It was here, as close to the sea as we could be without being in it, that we tucked into our St Ives and West Penwith weekender over light and fluffy home-baked scones and a locally brewed lager – a Cornish Cream Beer as we like to call it. On a serene spring afternoon, it was hard to imagine the cacophony of the sea during the storm of December 1981, when the entire Penlee lifeboat crew was lost attempting a rescue just a few miles away near Tater du Lighthouse.
The first dusting of briny air on our cheeks and in our lungs, we tackled the narrow lanes onto Treen, racing the tide to make it down onto the crushed-shell sands of the much-photographed Pedn Vounder beach. If you’re still feeling brave after the knee-wobbling descent, you can bare all beside the crystal clear waters of this unofficial naturist beach made for skinny-dipping, snorkelling and basking on sugar-white sands.
Look down from the cliff tops and you might spot basking sharks here in early summer; look up and you’ll witness the precariously balanced 80-tonne Logan Rock 30-metres above, which took 60 men and 13 winches to reinstate after it was dislodged by a group of British seamen in 1824.
Evening: Drama under the stars at the Minack Theatre
The climb back up from Pedn Vounder is thirsty work, so we rewarded ourselves with a pint of local ale at the atmospheric Logan Rock Inn, before rolling on to the Minack Theatre while it was still light enough to explore the sub-tropical gardens of this magnificent amphitheatre carved into cliffs overlooking Porthcurno. The brainchild of Rowenna Cade, the Minack’s stone terraces are punctuated by a living tapestry of vibrant plants, tumbling down to meet a sheer drop into the big blue.
Whatever play is on stage here, the scenery is as mesmerising as any of the performances, with the ocean, seabirds, wild weather, dazzling night skies and sometimes even unscripted dolphins in the backdrop. We knew it was wise to prepare for any weather at this exposed spot, so we’d packed blankets, waterproofs and a posh picnic. Cuddled up in the front row with a spread of cheese and wine, we were blown away by a dark and vivid play on a crisp, clear night, topped by the spectacle of shooting stars on the way back to our campsite.
Morning: Coast road from Land’s End to St Ives
Bypassing the touristy trappings of Land’s End, we made a beeline to Sennen Cove and padded barefoot along the wave-lashed shores to Gwynver beach. Catching the brunt of the Atlantic swells, this little surfing community at the end of Britain spawns some of Cornwall’s most successful surfers. However, instead of hitting the waves, we drank in the eye-popping scenery towards Cape Cornwall from the shoreline.
Cape Cornwall was once thought of as the most south-westerly point of Cornwall, before Ordnance Survey handed the title to Land’s End in the early 19th century. However, in my opinion, Cape Cornwall, with its offshore seabird colony and pristine beauty, still wins the beauty contest.
Back on the road, the B3306 from St Just to St Ives zigzags through a rich World Mining Heritage landscape teetering on the edge of the sea. Climbers, hikers, historians and ornithologists are lured to the untamed and ancient scenery, where rolling heathland is interrupted only by Iron Age remains, crumbling engine houses and wave-hewn cliffs. We paused for an iconic photo at Carn Galver Engine House, but would have return another time to delve beneath the surface and don a miner’s hat for an underground tour of Geevor Tin Mine.
Keen to get to St Ives in time for some gallery hopping, the only other stop we made was for refreshments at The Gurnard’s Head. Beckoning foodies to its ends-of-the-earth location on one of the wildest stretches of Cornwall’s coastline, this rustic country inn is the sort of place where you can abandon muddy walking boots by the fire, sip world-class wines and dine in style on seasonal produce plucked from the Cornish larder.
Afternoon: Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
Condensing the vast terrain on its doorstep into pretty, postcard-sized vistas, it’s little wonder that St Ives became a bohemian art colony in the early 1900s, when painters erected their easels in the fishermen’s lofts that have now been revamped into swanky seaside apartments.
Crowning the town’s artistic legacy is Tate St Ives, flaunting works by local and international artists in its architectural powerhouse nudging Porthmeor beach. Here we listened to the echo of the waves at the entrance, took a twirl around the light-filled exhibition spaces, and savoured the panoramas from its rooftop café.
Then we hopped over to its sister gallery – the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden – for a peek into the garden studio where one of Cornwall’s greatest, and most influential artists, etched the ‘truth’ into her materials. It was late afternoon as we took a sensory stroll around this oasis, where Hepworth’s monumental sculptures express the emotions and topography of the coastal environment that inspired them.
Evening: Sublime sunsets, food with a view and live music
As the doors closed on the galleries and boutiques, we dipped even further back in time at The Sloop Inn, for a pint of locally brewed beer in this historic haunt of smugglers and fishermen. One of Cornwall’s oldest inns, the doors opened in around 1312, so they’ve had plenty of time to work on their excellent selection of keg and cask ales, which on this occasion were accompanied by the merriment of a local band.
As dusky pink hues brushed the scenery, we strolled around ‘The Island’ promontory, scouring the horizon for dolphins and seals, cameras fixed on the view across St Ives Bay to Godrevy Lighthouse.
When it comes down to foodie offerings, St Ives is well endowed. The town’s food and drink festival in May lays testimony to the wealth of produce plucked from the surrounding coast and countryside, and there’s a stellar line-up of gastronomic hotspots along the waterfront.
The Michelin-starred Portminster Café has lured foodies for aeons, and now The Porthminster Kitchen is fast gaining a reputation for its local, seasonal dishes served in a stylish venue overlooking the fishing boats. It’s here that we bagged a table for two, dining on the likes of freshly-caught sole, North Coast mussels and shoulder of Cornish lamb, while the last of the golden light painted the harbour and the coastline beyond it.
For breakfast with a view, there really is no finer setting than the Porthgwidden Beach Café. Hunkered in the nook of The Island, there’s a pearly beach for a morning dip, alfresco tables for coffee with your toes in the sand, and tables gazing out to the lighthouse and bay from behind floor-to-ceiling windows. Cornish hogs puddings, locally smoked salmon and bakery delights energised us for a day on foot, so, hiking boots on, we hit the South West Coast Path.
Torn between the short, flat-ish meander, to Carbis Bay (where we knew we could hop on the scenic train ride back to St Ives), or the more undulating and rugged path heading west, we opted for the latter. Rounding Clodgy Point, we followed gorse-topped cliffs and boulder-strewn moorland along a 6.5-mile stretch of dramatic – and at times challenging terrain – towards to the hamlet of Zennor, pausing to peer over zawns to the sapphire-blue seas, our attention often snagged by seabirds and seals.
We made it to The Tinner’s Arms in time for crab nachos by the crackling log fire, stirred by the landscapes that inspired DH Lawrence to reside here and led to the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor being entrenched in local folklore. We chose to catch the Land’s End Coast bus back to St Ives, but could have cut back along the Field Path (signposted just beyond the church).
Once back in St Ives, we had one final liaison with its beautiful white sand beaches. Despite being tempted to linger on these wild and rugged shores, we had to accept that our 48 hours were up and finally turned our backs on its beauty – until next time.
Latest News, Events and Happenings this Summer Forget the big-name line-ups...
