Summer Walks in Cornwall

Fill your lungs with fresh sea air, take in giddy coastal views from the top of towering cliffs, and kick off your shoes on powder-sand beaches. We’ve picked out a day walk, an afternoon walk and a three-day hike for you to try in Cornwall this summer. 

In this four-seasons-in-a-day kind of weather we’ve been having lately, there’s no better way to explore Cornwall than on foot. Travel light and you can get a good few miles under your belt during the long, light-blessed days; just pack water and a waterproof and you’re ready to roll. You don’t have to tackle the entire 300 miles of the South West Coast Path to experience Cornwall’s diverse and gobsmacking scenery; walk this way on an afternoon stroll, a one-day walk, or a mighty three-day hike…

Day Walk: Constantine to Padstow

Distance: 11.5 miles
Time: Around 6 hours

What better way to arrive in foodie Padstow than hungry? Ready to fill yourself to the gills with local delights gathered from the land and sea, served in a platter of waterside restaurants and cafés that beckon you to the end point of your adventure on foot. Not so fast though, this 11.5-mile hike shouldn’t be rushed. There are plenty of pitstops for snacks, dreamy dips and wildlife spotting along the way, so you can travel light with just a water bottle and a towel.

Start your day on the Atlantic Coaster bus to Constantine, where Constantine Bay Stores has you covered for provisions and picnic supplies, then mosey on down to the beach for a barista coffee at Quies Coffee to get you started. It’s up to you if you want to kick off your shoes and scrunch barefoot along the crushed-shell shoreline of Constantine Bay, letting the water lap your toes while you scour the sand for sea-glass. If the tide’s out, clamber over the rocks to neighbouring Booby’s Bay, and see if you can spot the buried shipwreck.

As you make your way on towards the lighthouse standing sentry on Trevose Head, stare into the eerie pit of the 80-foot blowhole (without getting too close to the edge) and take a detour to stand on the tip of Dinas Head, before rounding into the shelter of Merope Rocks at Mother Ivey’s Bay. Stall for a dip in the crystalline sea if you must, but there are opportunities for swimming ahead, and miles still to cover.

Harlyn to Trevone is where you’ll find the beach packs on the shoreline, with their paddleboards, surfboards, buckets and spades ready for summer days on the beach. If you didn’t pack lunch take a seat overlooking the sea at the Beach Box on Harlyn, or first take a plunge in the sea pool at Trevone before pausing further on at Trevone Bay Café. Once you leave the beaches behind, you’ll escape the crowds, too, and find yourself on wildflower clifftops where cows graze, dumbstruck as you gaze out to The Quies and down to inaccessible coves where you might spot the whiskered nose of a seal beneath sheer, granite cliffs.

When you turn around Stepper Point and into the mouth of the Camel Estuary past the Doom Bar, the scenery softens into verdant, sheltered terrain that flanks the river banks, boats coming and going from Padstow Harbour, dog walkers and dippers meandering barefoot along the sugar-white sands of Hawker’s Cove. Time then for Cornish cream tea at the tiny Rest A While Tea Garden, before stripping off for a skin-tingling swim to freshen up before the final leg into buzzing Padstow.

At a leisurely pace, it took us six hours to make it from coffee and sea glass hunting on Constantine Bay, to ice cream at Padstow harbour. And you can change your starting point according to where you fancy hopping off Atlantic Coaster, and how much time and energy you’ve got.

Afternoon Stroll: Fowey Hall Walk

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 2-3 hours

Fancy a couple of ferry rides and a stroll along the banks of Penpol Creek, winding through wild garlic hemmed woodland to breathtaking views of Fowey and the south coast? The Hall Walk offers all of this, in a sublime four-mile loop that starts with a ride on the Bodinnick Ferry from Fowey, and traces the scenic, tree-lined Pont Pill all the way back to Polruan.

Grab yourself a panini stuffed with scrumptious Italian ingredients from Organicafé, then hop across the river on the Bodinnick ferry and climb to Penleath Point – where the memorial of novelist and scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch makes the picture-perfect spot to tuck into your panini with a bird’s eye of Fowey and the sailing boats zig-zagging along the glistening water.

The Hall Walk is well signposted along the woodland-hemmed Penpol Creek, taking you down to the tiny quayside hamlet of Pont Pill, once a thriving quay where sailing barges would unload coal, fertiliser and limestone. These days the Pont is deserted other than a couple of holiday cottages on the southern shore, and a family of swans that glide along the calm water. It’s a peaceful respite from the busy summer streets of Fowey just a few miles away.

Keep following the path as it climbs steeply back up from water level, towards the ancient Lanteglos-by-Fowey Church, where we’d suggest a detour to Blackbottle Rock. From here you can gawp at the beauty that’s Lantic Bay, or even climb down to the golden crescent that lures only few passers by on foot or by boat. If you forego the effort to descend to the beach, it’s not far back along the coast path back to Polruan, where the ferry awaits to whisk you back across the water. However, once you’re quenching your thirst in the waterside venue of The King of Prussia, surrounded by the summer crowds that flock to Fowey, you might well wish you’d taken the time to bask on those less trammelled shores.

3-Day Walk: Penzance to St Ives

Distance: 40 miles
Time: 3-5 days

If you’re primed for a multi-day walk, then don your boots and tackle the 40 miles of undulating, awe-inspiring coast from Penzance to St Ives. Keep your camera and binoculars at the ready, pack some energy bars and brace yourself for calf-busting climbs and otherworldly views. The beauty of this walk isn’t just in the landscape. There’s a train station at each end, so there’s no need to co-ordinate transport.

Day 1: Penzance to Sennen (17.8 miles)

Leave Penzance and Newlyn behind, tracing the edge of Mount’s Bay to dinky Mousehole harbour, pausing for breakfast in the sub-tropical gardens of the Old Coastguard Hotel, from where you can spot seals and seabirds just offshore at St Clement’s Isle. Pressing on and tunnelling through the Kemyel Crease Nature Reserve you’ll emerge at the arty hamlet of Lamorna, where you won’t be able to resist coffee and cake nudging the water at Lamorna Cove Café.

The boulder-strewn shoreline past Tater Du Lighthouse is a stretch of coast often only seen from the water, its beacon warning ships of the Runnelstone Rocks where many have foundered. Once you reach the 80-tonne Logan Rock, precariously balanced above the much-photographed sands at Pedn Vounder beach, the landscape becomes more familiar, and busier with phone-wielding sightseers filling Insta feeds with even more snaps of the iconic Porthcurno and the Minack Theatre. A few trickle on around Gwennap Head to Land’s End, where you can snap your own memories on the south-westerly point of Great Britain before the final mile to Sennen Cove – the perfect stopover at the end of a long day’s walk.

Day 2: Sennen to Gurnard’s Head (14.3 miles)

From the surfy enclave of Sennen Cove, it’s just five miles further to Cape Cornwall – once believed to be the most south-westerly point of the UK, before Land’s End stole the crown. Huge Atlantic swells belt the rocky coastline here, but you can seek shelter in the tidal pool at Priest’s Cove, before standing atop Cape Cornwall where Atlantic currents divide, and seabirds breed just offshore on Brison Rocks. 

The next nine-miles yawns from Cape Cornwall to Gurnard’s Head, as you pick your way from promontories where remnants of cliff castles stand, and past some of the most dramatic World Heritage mining sites in the country. Botallack, Geevor and Levant mines all lie along this narrow belt of land where the granite is seamed with tin and copper, engine houses rising from wild terrain on the edge of the Atlantic. If you’ve got the energy, watch the sunset from the tip of Gurnard’s Head promontory, before turning inland across the field to the bright-yellow restaurant with rooms to dine on nature’s bounty and rest your head.

Day 3: Gurnard’s Head to St Ives (8.5 miles)

The final day presses on over nine more miles to St Ives; but not before covering wild and challenging terrain, punctuated by inaccessible coves reigned by seals, seabirds and legendary mermaids. A necklace of headlands rounds Clodgy Point and brings Porthmeor Beach into view, where the Tate St Ives is the beacon for the town’s world-class arts scene, and the beach café serves tapas beside the waves where surfers play. It’s a sublime place to end to a three-day walking weekend, and the scenic coastal railway will trundle you back to St Erth and onto the mainline back your work-a-day if you don’t have time to extend your stay.

Where to stay:

Once a thatched cottage where local fishermen congregated, The Old Success offers B&B rooms and some new, swanky self-catering apartments. Minutes’ walk inland from one of the wildest stretches of Cornwall’s coastline, at The Gurnard’s Head you can swap walking boots for Vi-sprung beds and world-class wines. In the heart of St Ives, overlooking the white sands of Porthminster, between the beach, the harbour and the train station, bag a stylish room at the Pedn Olva. 

If you want to break the route down into a longer hike, check out the suggested five-day walk from St Ives to Penzance on the South West Coast Path website.