News Information and Media Site: Flocking To: A guide to England’s Cornish coast

October 25, 2024

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A banner reading "Flocking To: Cornwall, England."

By Kate Maxwell

Cornwall, England's craggy southwestern tip is laden with myth and legend: Mermaids are said to have lured villagers into the sea here and piskies, a mischievous tribe of fairies, to skip across the area's wind-whipped moors. Its real-life history includes Neolithic standing stones and the 13th-century Tintagel Castle, built on the cliff-top site where King Arthur was thought to have been conceived. No wonder the county has provided creative inspiration for hundreds of years. "Artists have been drawn to Cornwall since the time of [J.M.W.] Turner [in the 1800s] because of the natural light and the outstanding beauty of the landscape," says Anne Barlow, the director of the Tate St. Ives art gallery.

The remote, rural county, about 250 miles southeast of London, continues to attract creative people, although today they're more likely to be working for a fashion label or design agency than painting seascapes. Cornwall has one of England's largest number of B Corps — businesses that meet high social and environmental standards — after London: All this innovation means that many young Cornish people now return to the county after university instead of heading to London or Bristol. Still, the county's desirability as a vacation destination, which rocketed during the Covid pandemic when international travel restrictions forced Brits to rediscover the bounty in their own backyards, has pushed up property prices in many areas, causing tension with locals, leading Cornwall's roads and seaside towns to become choked in the summer months.

The granite cliffs of Land's End, the most westerly point of mainland England. Sandra Mickiewicz

Come in October and you'll find a different scene. "The maddening crowds have gone, the sea is the perfect temperature for swimming, the blackberries are out and the landscape is all rust colors," says Frieda Gormley, a co-founder of the homewares brand House of Hackney. It's the best time for surfing, too: "You start to get those autumn swells," says Tom Kay of the outdoor clothing line Finisterre.

Rent a car and you can easily explore Cornwall's peninsula in a single trip, taking in its wild Atlantic coast, with rocky headlands and wide, white beaches, and more sheltered southern coast, known for its fishing villages, sandy coves and estuaries, as well as the brooding landscape in between. Better still, lace up your hiking boots and hit the South West Coast Path, lined, at this time of year, with gorse and heather. "It's really cozy to be out in a bracing wind on a cliff top and then go to a tiny pub with a wood-burning stove," says Barlow. Here, Barlow, Gormley, Kay and the chef Jude Kereama, all of whom live and work in Cornwall, share their favorite places in the county.

Click here for a map of the locations mentioned below.

The Insiders

From left: Anne Barlow, Frieda Gormley, Tom Kay and Jude Kereama. Illustration by Richard Pedaline

Anne Barlow is the director of Tate St. Ives and has lived in St. Ives since 2017.

Frieda Gormley, a co-founder of the interiors brand House of Hackney, moved from East London to the 11th-century Castle of Trematon in Cornwall six years ago. The castle's lodge is available to rent on Airbnb during certain weeks of the year.

Tom Kay is the founder of Finisterre, an outerwear and adventure brand based in St. Agnes. He has lived in the town since starting the company there in 2003.

Jude Kereama, originally from New Zealand, is the owner and head chef of the modern British-Asian restaurants Kota and Kota Kai in Porthleven.

Sleep

Left: Cliff Cottage, a former fish cellar at Porth-en-Alls Prussia Cove, near Penzance, sleeps 12. A private path leads from the house to Bessy's Cove, a stony beach where visitors can swim and explore the rock pools. Right: A room at the Gurnard's Head, a dining pub with rooms on a remote coastal road between St. Ives and St. Just. Sandra Mickiewicz

"We've been staying at Porth-en-Alls Prussia Cove every summer since we moved to Cornwall. It's an estate near Penzance, made up of old farmhouses and fishermens' cottages, where time has stood still." (Rooms from about $335 a night)

"The Gurnard's Head, on a wild peninsula near Zennor, is also very charming. It's a turmeric-painted pub with rooms, and the owner was trained at Ballymaloe House Hotel in Ireland [famous for its cooking school and restaurant], so the food is fantastic." (Rooms from about $220 a night) — Frieda Gormley

"The interiors by the hotelier and designer Olga Polizzi at Hotel Tresanton are wonderfully done, the food's brilliant — it's got a great British menu using seasonal ingredients — and there are lots of little touches like Wellington boots and rain jackets just in case." (Rooms from about $445 a night)

"On the north coast, not far from Cornwall's airport, Watergate Bay Hotel is phenomenal for families, and they've just hired a Michelin-starred chef, Chris Eden, who's a friend of mine." (Rooms from about $290 a night) — Jude Kereama

"You can feel Cornwall's smuggling history at the Driftwood Spars in St. Agnes. The building was constructed in the 1650s from wooden beams salvaged from shipwrecks and had many other lives before it became a hotel in the early 1900s, including as a tin-mining warehouse and a sail-making loft. The pub downstairs serves its own home-brewed beer, and you can walk right out onto the coastal path." (Rooms from about $145 a night) — Tom Kay

Eat and Drink

Left: The restaurant at Crocadon Farm, near Saltash, which serves organic or regenerative produce grown on the farm and bread made in its bakery. Right: A dish at the Ship Inn. The pub hovers over the sea wall at Porthleven and hosts traditional shanty singers. Sandra Mickiewicz

"We're lucky to live very close to a place in Saltash called Crocadon Farm, a restaurant, bakery, pottery studio and cafe, which Dan Cox, a former head chef of Fera at Claridge's in London, took over about seven years ago and opened to the public in 2023. He grows nearly everything from scratch, and [serves] organic and regeneratively sourced food. Get the tasting menu, which includes pairings with alcohol or homemade cordials. You can buy the plates at the little shop there — I often give them as presents.

"We also love the Hidden Hut, a shack on Porthcurnick Beach that does stews, chowders and incredible fish curries." — F.G.

"The bar Schooners, right on the seafront in St. Agnes, does homemade pizza — I had a really good anchovy one the last time I was there — and Verdant craft beer, which is brewed locally. I like to drop in after being in the sea with my kids.

"The Taphouse, in the middle of St. Agnes, is a little bar with a great menu that's always rammed — I like the poke bowls.

"You can get super fresh mussels and beer at the Mussel Shoal — an alfresco shack with a chalkboard menu on the harbor at Porthleven." — T.K.

"My favorite Cornish pasties are at Ann's Pasties. The dough is half-flaky and half-short, so it gives this crispy texture that holds the ingredients really well.

"The Ship Inn in Porthleven is an old-time pub right on the sea. The room itself, decorated with shipping paraphernalia, is glorious. There are shanty singers, and you can see the waves crashing over the sea walls through the windows when the weather's stormy. It serves simple Cornish pub fare like fish pie, as well as excellent crab nachos.

"Bruce Rennie is a one-man band with impeccable training, and he cooks some of the best, most original food I've ever eaten at the Shore in Penzance [closed in October; reopens November]. His Chawanmushi — Japanese egg custard — with smoked eel tastes like bacon and eggs." — J.K.

Shop

Left: The former tin-mining town of Lostwithiel is Cornwall's antiques capital, with a range of shops selling Georgian and Victorian finds. Right: At Otter Surfboards in Truro, you can commission a handmade board from sustainable, locally grown timber, or make your own in a five-day workshop. Sandra Mickiewicz

"You can make your own surfboard out of a piece of local wood in a week at Otter Surfboards in Truro. They're beautiful things and it's therapeutic." — T.K.

"Finisterre's clothes don't just look good, they're great quality and hard-wearing, too. If you damage your garment, [the company] will sort it out. There's a Finisterre outlet store in Hawksfield, which has cool shops including a milliner called Marcel Rodrigues. He makes hats to order — Panamas, cowboy hats, anything you want, he'll be able to make it." — J.K.

"The small town of Lostwithiel is Cornwall's antiques mecca. We've found all sorts of things for Trematon at Dower House Antiques & Interiors, including Georgian and Victorian furniture, lighting and fine bone china." — F.G.

Take Home

The West Penwith studio of figurative and abstract painter Henrietta Dubrey, who was drawn to Cornwall by the artistic heritage of St. Ives. Sandra Mickiewicz

"Tarquin's Cornish Gin was one of the earliest craft gins to be made here, with natural ingredients you'll find on the cliff tops. It tastes crisp and clean." — T.K.

"Cornish sea salt is one of my favorite ingredients. Sometimes all you need is a sprinkle to make a dish taste amazing. The Cornish Sea Salt Company produces flaky and fine salt in lots of different flavors; the water quality is what makes it delicious." — J.K.

"I love to gather sloe berries at Trematon in autumn and soak them in a particularly delicious Cornish gin called Trevethan. I give it to people for Christmas.

"There are a few local artists whose work I like to collect and give [as gifts], including Henrietta Dubrey, Ken Spooner and Peter Ward, who uses dusty-colored pigments that he makes from the land." — F.G.

Explore

Left: The 200-acre Lost Gardens of Heligan were developed in the 18th century and became a wilderness at the outbreak of the First World War. Restored in the 1990s, the gardens are home to more than 70 veteran camellias and 350 ancient rhododendrons. Right: Over 130 shipwrecks idle in the sea around Land's End, which was a destination as early as the Ancient Greek period, when it was known as Belerion, the shining land. Sandra Mickiewicz

"Minack Theatre was one woman's vision: Rowena Cade was brought up in a genteel Edwardian family and was inspired to transform a Cornish cliff face into an open-air theater; she built much of it with her own hands. Seeing a performance there at sunset is spectacular.

"Kynance Cove [on the Lizard peninsula] has crystal clear waters, sandy beaches and amazing formations of serpentine rock.

"I take artists visiting Tate St. Ives to Wheal Maid, which is known as the Cornish Mars. It's a former mine and clay pit turned lagoon; the water is bright purple or bright orange because of all the chemicals and minerals that've been deposited in it, and there are structures in the man-made landscape around it that almost look as if you're on the surface of the moon." — Anne Barlow

"Cornwall has many special gardens. The Lost Gardens of Heligan have [seemingly] Jurassic vegetation, including giant gunnera, that makes it feel almost prehistoric; the Eden Project, a series of huge biomes containing the flora and fauna of different locations, is a great place for a rainy day, and Trebah Garden [near Falmouth], a once wildly overgrown garden leading to the beach that's been tamed beautifully, and reminds me of Manderley in 'Rebecca.'

"Lantic Bay is a beach [near Polruan] managed by the National Trust that feels straight out of 'Treasure Island.' It's such a special place to me that my wedding ring is made out of a stone from the beach.

"I love the collection of artifacts at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic [in Boscastle]. It's curated by Simon Costin, a renowned set designer who used to work with Alexander McQueen." — F.G.

"My kids love messing around in the rock pools at Chapel Porth Beach, under the site of some famous tin mines. They'll spend all day there, catching fish and crabs.

"Surfing in Cornwall is pretty fickle because the waves break where the sandbars form, and these come and go with the tide. Generally, the best spots are the ones you need to make an effort to get to, like Penhale Corner, a beautiful place with one of the biggest sand dune complexes in Europe. I also love West Penwith, a super wild and remote spot beyond St. Ives with a great selection of sand breaks." — T.K.

"West Cornwall is fabulous for road cycling, with so many steep climbs and descents. I do a 100-mile route that takes me from Porthleven, all along the coast around Land's End (the westernmost point of mainland England), to Portreath Beach, then southward to one side of the Lizard Point (the southernmost point), up the other side of the Lizard, then back to Porthleven. The views are stunning, and there are lovely cafes, pubs and restaurants to take a break at on the way." — J.K.

Practical Matters

"Take the Pullman train from London Paddington to Penzance [it's about a six-hour trip], rather than drive, and hire a car at Penzance station. There's a sleeper that leaves at 10 p.m., or you can book first-class service with a delicious three-course lunch or dinner. Ride On is a great bicycle hire shop in Porthleven that has a range of electric bikes — handy for the hills." — J.K.

"Make sure you're packed for all weather possibilities: take hiking boots, a really good waterproof and SPF." — F.G.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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