Top tips for the Penwith Peninsula, western Cornwall

There’s something magical about Cornwall as a whole, but it’s the Penwith Peninsula – the far western tip of both the county and mainland England – that draws me back again and again. I can’t quite put my finger on why I love this remote, rugged corner of the UK so much. Maybe it’s the pristine beaches and dramatic cliffs. Maybe it’s the shimmering light, which has been attracting artists for centuries. Maybe it’s the postcard-pretty fishing harbours of Mousehole and St Ives, and the bustling ports of Newlyn and Penzance. Or maybe it’s the fact that I have links to the area through Cornish sea-faring ancestors on both sides of my family. Whatever the reason, it’s a place that speaks to my soul like few others. 

I’ve lost track of the amount of visits Chris and I have made to Penwith over the years, but following our most recent trip in May I thought it was high time I updated my top tips for the area. So, read on for my recommendations for where to stay, where to eat and what to see and do, with plenty of old favourites alongside some fantastic new discoveries…

Above: the beautiful harbour town of St Ives

Stay at:

Chapel House, Chapel Street, Penzance

We spent the first night of our 2017 minimoon at this light-filled hotel, which sits in a Georgian townhouse in the heart of Penzance. The six rooms and two suites are beautifully furnished with a mix of antiques and Scandinavian pieces, and some have huge egg-shaped bathtubs and sea views. Downstairs are two lovely lounges where you can sprawl out with coffee and a book, and breakfast is served informally around a big table in the kitchen. There are also regular supper clubs on Friday and Saturday evenings. Read my full review here.

Artist Residence, Chapel Street, Penzance

Artist Residence is just a few doors up from Chapel House and makes another wonderful Penzance base. We’ve stayed there ourselves (see more here) and loved the eclectic bedrooms, the comfy fire-lit lounge-bar and the delicious food in the on-site restaurant.

Trevose Harbour House, The Warren, St Ives

This chic little B&B is my favourite option in St Ives. The six bedrooms are decorated in crisp blues and whites, with restored mid-century furniture and eye-catching patterns; those on the top floor have harbour vistas. Breakfast is a real treat (smoothies, homemade granola, smoked salmon with potato scones), and it’s adults-only so very peaceful. Owners Angela and Olivier also rent out two nearby studio apartments, Sands and Samphire, should you want a bit more privacy. 

Harbour View House, Fernlea Terrace, St Ives

Just a two-minute walk from the station in the centre of St Ives, this gorgeous guesthouse blends coastal minimalism with boho touches, creating a relaxed and very homely haven. There are nine simple but stylish rooms of varying sizes, most with harbour or bay views and one with a Juliet balcony. Downstairs is a laid-back café-bar that’s open to everyone (see below), plus a small lifestyle boutique. 

Morvoren, Saltponds, Mousehole

The base for our most recent trip to Penwith, this whitewashed former fishing cottage sits right by the water’s edge in Mousehole. Outside is a pretty little terrace gazing out over Mount’s Bay; inside, there’s a living area and kitchen on the ground floor, a double bedroom and bathroom above, and a daybed and writing desk nestled under the eaves at the top. The décor throughout is beautiful, with rustic wooden furniture, beamed ceilings and a soothing palette of whites, blues and greys. What’s more, there’s a sea view from almost every room. Read my full review here. 

Fallen Angel, Millpool, Mousehole

Another Mousehole option that we’ve stayed at and loved is this sleek couples’ hideaway, perched on a hillside high above the harbour. Constructed from granite, timber and rubber cladding, it has a huge open-plan living area on the upper level and a cosy bedroom beneath. Both have floor-to-ceiling windows and a slight North African vibe (patterned tiles, carved wooden furniture, filigree lanterns), but the biggest treat is the freestanding steel tub with its sweeping vista over the village to the sea beyond. There’s also a decked balcony, plus a palm-filled sub-tropical garden with a firepit. 

For other gorgeous self-catering options across Penwith, take a look at Cornish Gems, Kip Hideaways, Unique Homestays and Boutique Retreats.

Eat & drink at:

Argoe, The Strand, Newlyn

One of our favourite discoveries from our most recent trip, Argoe occupies a wooden box overlooking Newlyn’s busy trawler port. The menu focuses on just-caught fish, often straight off the boat and cooked whole over a charcoal grill by chef Ben Coombs. There’s nothing fancy or over the top – just excellent local ingredients, a simple white interior, a short list of biodynamic wines and very friendly service.

Mackerel Sky, New Road, Newlyn

This tiny white-fronted restaurant doesn’t take bookings, but it’s well worth any queue for a table. It too serves up local fish and seafood, but here it’s prepared as tapas-size dishes with a few international twists. We had crab nachos, scallops with Cornish dukkah, crispy sole with Katsu sauce and grilled white fish with samphire – all absolutely delicious.

Lovetts, The Coombe, Newlyn

By day, Lovetts is a café serving speciality coffee, cakes, brunches and lunches. Come evening, it’s transformed into a bar with a focus on low-intervention wines, craft beers and spirits. There’s also a bottle shop and, as it’s just across the road from Mackerel Sky, it makes a great option for pre-dinner drinks if you do have to wait for a table!

No. 2 Fore Street, Fore Street, Mousehole

No. 2 Fore Street is a relaxed bistro-style restaurant on Mousehole Harbour, and a place we’ve returned to several times. It’s open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks, and the menu ranges from the likes of crab soup and saffron risotto to rib-eye steak and homemade burgers. The décor is simple and stylish, with tongue-and-groove panelling in muted greys and blues, and there’s a sunny courtyard garden at the back.

Rock Pool Café, The Parade, Mousehole

Perched on the rocks above Mousehole’s tidal pool, this little café is a wonderful place to sip coffee, tuck into lunch or indulge in afternoon cocktails (sadly it’s not open in the evening) as you watch seals basking on the islet of St Clement’s just opposite. There’s seating indoors and out (plus one table in a cute wooden Wendy House), and dogs are welcome.

Porthmeor Beach Cafe, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives

Located just below the Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach Cafe is a laid-back hangout with shaded outdoor seating booths, a covered area and a sun-drenched deck. The menu encompasses breakfast, tapas and all sorts of inventive cocktails, and the views are incredible – particularly if you get there for sunset.

Source Kitchen, The Digey, St Ives

Set on a winding lane just back from St Ives harbour, this bistro-style restaurant is a wonderful spot for lunch and dinner. Owners Stephen and Sophie take the best Cornish ingredients (fish, seafood, organic meat and veg) and turn them into delicious sharing plates, served up in an airy space decorated in grey, white and blue. Everything we had was delicious, from the local charcuterie to the affogato dessert made with Cornish clotted cream ice-cream and hand-roasted espresso.

Little Palais, Wharf Road, St Ives

I haven’t sampled the most recent incarnation of this neighbourhood bar and bottle shop myself as it was in the process of moving premises when we last visited St Ives, but it looks very promising. First opened in 2020, it now occupies a minimalist concrete and birch-ply space in the old customs house on the harbour and has a selection of cocktails, low-intervention wines and small plates. It’s open Tuesday-Saturday from 4pm to 10pm (walk-ins only).

Harbour View House, Fernlea Terrace, St Ives

The café-bar of Harbour View House is a great place to head for relaxed brunches, lunches, coffees and cocktails, whether or not you’re staying there. The décor mixes simple wooden furniture with quirky touches (a display of straw hats, anaglypta wallpaper), and there’s a huge picture window overlooking the town and harbour. My tips: the Negronis and the mocktail Margaritas.

Porthminster Café, Porthminster Beach, St Ives

Sitting right on the sand of Porthminster Beach, this restaurant occupies a whitewashed pavilion and a sheltered deck, both candlelit after dark. It’s relaxed but sophisticated, and the menu fuses local seafood with Mediterranean and Asian flavours (crispy fried squid with miso, monkfish curry, Cornish crab linguine). There are tasty vegetarian dishes, too.

St Ives Bakery, Fore Street, St Ives

I defy anyone to walk past this independent little bakery and not nip in for a few treats. There’s a huge range of just-baked breads, cakes and pastries to choose from, but the specialities are the Cornish pasties and the ‘cruffins’ (a cross between a muffin and a croissant), both available in all sorts of different flavours. 

St. Eia, The Digey, St Ives

Not far from Porthmeor Beach and the Tate, family-run bar St Eia serves up conscientiously produced wines by the glass or bottle, together with Cornish cheese and charcuterie, coffee from local roasters Creature Coffee and home-baked goodies. Tables spill onto the square outside and you can buy bottles to take away, too.

Tremenheere Kitchen, Gulval, near Penzance

This wood-clad restaurant sits in the stunning Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens (see below), but you can eat there even if you’re not planning on exploring the wider site. It’s open for breakfast and lunch, with tables inside, under a covered veranda and on a terrace planted with herbs and succulents. The menu encompasses plenty of local ingredients, and Chris and I thought the sautéed wild mushrooms and truffle-infused madeira cream on toast was one of the best brunch dishes we’ve had in a long time. In summer there’s also a little hut serving take-away food.

Explore:

Porthcurno

Porthcurno is one of my all-time favourite beaches – a triangular wedge of white-gold sand flanked by jagged rocks, sometimes with crashing waves and sometimes with turquoise water so still and clear that it could be the Mediterranean. It’s a wonderful place for a picnic and a swim, and there are RNLI lifeguards in high season.

Porthcurno is also home to the open-air Minack Theatre, hewn out of the cliff above the beach with the sea as a backdrop. It was created by Rowena Cade, who lived in Minack House nearby, and the first performance was a production of The Tempest in 1932. It still hosts plays and concerts throughout the summer months, and you can visit for a look around during the day.

Pedn Vounder 

Another favourite beach is Pedn Vounder, where Chris and I had our engagement photoshoot in 2016. Back then it was one of Cornwall’s best-kept secrets, but it’s now very well-known and was even voted one of the world’s top beaches earlier this year. It’s still stunningly beautiful and well worth a visit, even though you’ll no longer have it to yourself – just bear in mind that one end is popular with nudists, and there are no facilities whatsoever. There’s no road access either, so you’ll need to park in the village of Treen and follow a very steep path down the cliff. At low tide, you can also walk round from Porthcurno, but make sure you check times very carefully and don’t risk getting cut off.

The South West Coast Path from Porthgwarra to Nanjizal

The South West Coast Path twists around the entire Penwith Peninsula, but my favourite part is the section around Nanjizal. Start at the tiny fishing cove of Porthgwarra, where there’s a car park, a handful of pretty cottages, a tunnel carved through the cliff and a little café shack for lunch or coffee. From there, the path winds around a series of dramatic headlands, past otherworldly rock formations, roaming horses and the coastal monitoring station at Gwennap Head. After about an hour’s walking, you’ll come to some wooden steps leading down to Nanjizal – a hidden beach that’s inaccessible by road, with a patch of golden sand washed by emerald-green water and a spectacular wave-pounded chasm known as the ‘Song of the Sea’. From there, you can head back to Porthgwarra the way you came or carry on along the path to Land’s End. 

Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives

St Ives has long attracted painters, potters and sculptors, and the rotating exhibitions at the town’s outpost of the Tate Gallery provide a great introduction to their work. But it’s worth visiting for the architecture as much as the art on display, with gleaming white walls, sweeping curves and unexpected glimpses of the sea through porthole-shaped windows. There’s a top-floor café and terrace with panoramic views, too.  

Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, Barnoon Hill, St Ives

The studio where renowned sculptor Barbara Hepworth lived from 1949 until her death in 1975 is now a wonderful museum dedicated to her work. The garden is particularly beautiful – a peaceful haven hidden by palms and high walls, with rambling greenhouses, vine-strewn potting sheds and elegant bronzes dotted among the trees.

Godrevy Point, near St Ives

Managed by the National Trust and located just to the east of St Ives, Godrevy is home to a sandy surf beach, craggy coves and a colony of 30 or so grey seals. There’s a clifftop path and viewing area, and at low tide you can spot them lazing on the shore or bobbing around in the shallows – a truly magical sight.

Sennen Cove

Sennen Cove’s vast sweep of sand is the most westerly beach in England and beautiful whatever the weather – we’ve enjoyed picnics in blazing sunshine and bracing walks along a mist-shrouded shore. There’s a café for lunch, surfboard hire and lessons if you fancy hitting the waves, and an RNLI lifeguard service in high season.

The Jubilee Pool, The Promenade, Penzance

Jutting out into the sea, Penzance’s open-air Art Deco pool is one of the few remaining saltwater lidos in Europe. It was first built in the 1930s and totally refurbished a few years ago, with as many original details as possible being preserved. There’s also a smaller geothermally heated pool, a learner pool for children, and a waterside cafe for post-swim drinks and snacks.

No 56, Chapel Street, Penzance

This is one of those shops where you’ll want to buy everything on display. Run by former fashion designer Carole Elsworth, it’s stocked with a beautifully curated range of ceramics and home accessories from Cornwall and further afield, all showcasing simple design, natural materials and muted colours. There’s a selection of skincare and stationery, too.

St Michael’s Mount, Marazion

I was worried I’d be disappointed by the famous castle-topped island of St Michael’s Mount, as I’d visited its French counterpart Mont St Michel and found it dominated by tacky souvenir shops and hot-dog stalls. But I needn’t have worried – it’s managed by the National Trust and has remained beautifully unspoilt, with sub-tropical terraced gardens, medieval towers and a very pretty little harbour. At low tide you can walk to it via the causeway from Marazion, otherwise you’ll need to get the regular boat service (check the website for times and details).

Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Gulval, near Penzance

Set on a hillside overlooking Penzance and St Michael’s Mount, Tremenheere’s vast gardens are dotted with sculptures by artists such as Tim Shaw and David Nash. Their works are beautiful, but it was the exotic planting that really appealed to me – I felt like I was exploring a hidden valley, with streams and decked walkways twisting through dangling vines, towering ferns and flowering palms. The on-site restaurant, Tremenheere Kitchen (see above) is excellent, too. 

Chysauster and Carn Euny ancient villages

The Penwith Peninsula is home to two ancient villages that give a rare insight into rural life some 2,000 years ago. They’re probably not a must-see for many people but we found them fascinating, especially as they’re made up of circular dwellings known as ‘courtyard houses’ that are found only in this part of Cornwall. Chysauster is the larger of the two, with facilities and an entrance charge. Carn Euny is free to enter and perhaps a little better preserved, but it’s very remote with a tiny car park and then a 10-minute walk to the site itself.

Cormorant Cruising, Mousehole and Newlyn

Former RNLI coxswain Neil Brockman runs regular boat trips from Mousehole and Newlyn, taking you on a gentle cruise past smugglers’ coves and rocky seal-inhabited islets. You can also arrange private charters, which Chris and I did during our minimoon and enjoyed so much that we booked another for our fifth wedding anniversary this year. Sadly the weather curtailed our plans, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a few hours aboard the Cormorant if you want to see this stunning stretch of coastline from the water.  

Above: the pretty fishing village of Mousehole 

Getting there & getting around:

The Penwith Peninsula is a long drive from anywhere. If you don’t want to bring a car you can take the train to Penzance (there are direct services from London, Bristol, Birmingham and elsewhere), then use local buses to get around. Particularly useful are the half-hourly ‘MOUS’ services between Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole, and ‘The Land’s End Coaster’ – a scenic circular route that stops at Penzance, Porthcurno, Sennen, St Ives, Marazion and more.

The nearest airport is Newquay (an hour away), which has domestic flights from London. You can also fly to Bristol (a three-hour drive) or Exeter (a two-hour drive) and travel to Cornwall from there.

Parking in St Ives is tricky, especially in summer, so if you’re heading there it’s worth catching the train from Penzance or the Park & Ride station at St Erth (just off the main A30).

All photography and map graphic by Abi Dare