Sian and Peter get Scilly
The Scilly Isles and Cornwall
Sian and Peter jumped on the train from Newcastle to head south on a fourteen day Byway, full of island hopping, bird spotting and sea swimming. They enjoyed crab sandwiches, island ferries, view-filled walks, a Shepherd’s Hut, and a show from Red Arrows (for them, or the G7 dignitaries).
14 days
2 adults, 1 room
Starting in Penzance
Around Penzance
We travelled from Newcastle on a direct train to Penzance; a very pleasant but long journey. We arrived in wonderful sunshine so we decided to walk along the promenade to reach our B&B and were shown to our huge, comfortable room. We set off for a short walk exploring Penzance before going to Mermaids Alley for a delicious supper.
Saturday morning and the weather wasn’t great. We booked into Penlee Gallery and spent a couple of hours learning more about the artists known as the Newlyn artists who lived and worked in nearby Newlyn and Lamoura. We then put on our waterproofs and set off for a walk.
We walked from Penzance along the South West Coast Path, via Newlyn, to Mousehole. A lovely walk, even in the rain. We stopped to look at the very moving memorial to those who were lost in the 1982 lifeboat disaster. After a lovely lunch at The Old Coastguard, we set off again and walked to Lamura, a more challenging walk especially as the weather got worse! The views however continued to be stunning. On our return to Mousehole, we had a fabulous dinner at 2, Fore Street then caught the bus back to Penzance.
We started Sunday with fish cakes for breakfast, truly delicious! Then a swim in the Jubilee pool, a beautiful iconic pool, but still pretty cold! We were very lucky in that we had managed to book tickets to visit St. Michael’s Mount on Sunday afternoon. By now the sun was shining and we walked out across the causeway. First stop was the castle, a wonderful building with an interesting history. We felt so privileged to be able to see it, especially when we heard a few days later that Biden’s visit as part of the G7 was cancelled because of the mist! We would thoroughly recommend a visit here but booking in advance is essential. The tide was well and truly in when we returned by boat to Marazion for an explore of the town and a nice cold glass of wine before walking back to Penzance.
Penzance > St Mary’s
Our brief stay in Penzance was already over and on Monday morning we were ferry-bound for the Isles of Scilly. A smooth, quiet crossing, although some passengers were disappointed that there were no breakfasts available! We disembarked on St. Mary’s and easily found our accommodation. After dropping off our luggage we set off to explore.
The Isles of Scilly
There’s an 8-mile footpath circumnavigating the island, so you would think it would be hard to get lost! We did about half of the coastal path and then somehow wandered off inland along some lovely footpaths and saw some of the beautiful countryside St. Mary’s has to offer. We ate crab sandwiches at Juliet’s Garden - lovely. It was our first experience of how tame local birds seem to be, with sparrows and blackbirds hopping onto our plates and some diners feeding them by hand. At the end of the walk, we swam at Porthcressa beach, just a short walk from Hugh Town.
We were determined to explore as many of the islands as we could. At breakfast each morning our host read out the boat times to help people plan their days. We choose Tresco for our first day. The forecast was good and we wanted to see the Abbey gardens in the sunshine. We were not disappointed. The gardens were amazing and it was a delight to see red squirrels jumping through the trees. On the day we visited there were reported sightings of an Egyptian Vulture, the first sighting in the UK for over 150 years on a little tiny island and we missed it! Our seven year old birdwatching grandson is going to very disappointed in us!
We had a delicious cream tea in the cafe at the gardens, our only cream tea throughout the two weeks so a good job it was nice! Tresco is a small island so it was easily explored in one day - the walks are all on good paths with plenty of waymarks. King Charles Castle and Cromwell’s castle were worth a visit. We swam and caught the last boat back to St. Mary’s. That night we ate tapas at Dibble and Grub; like most of the restaurants on the island it needs to be booked in advance. Do book restaurants in advance - some guests in our B&B reported difficulty finding places to eat.
St. Martin’s was next on our agenda and I think it was probably my favourite island. Again it was an easy island to explore, less manicured than Tresco with no waymarks. We walked around the coast stopping for a colourful crab salad at Little Arthur’s decorated with local edible flowers. I swam at Great Bay, voted as one of the best swimming beaches in the UK, and we were the only people on it.
Day 4 on the Isles of Scilly and we planned to visit Bryher, the smallest of the inhabited islands. As the ferry times vary, we had the morning to continue exploring St. Mary’s, completing the part of the coastal path we had missed on day one. This took us through Old Town and the footpath actually crosses the end of the airport runway, with lights to warn you if an aeroplane is approaching. The weather had changed by now and it was quite misty, however the views were still good and the wildflowers were amazing. This side of the island seemed a bit more rugged, we walked past Porth Hellick pool and stopped at Porth Hellick Down burial chamber before heading back to Hugh Town, via the nature reserve, for the afternoon boat to Bryher.
Another enjoyable boat trip out to Bryher - the boatmen are very entertaining. Although it is a small island, Bryher has a lot to offer. It seems quite wild in places. We landed at Anneka's Quay and headed off past Fraggle Rock, with lovely views back to Tresco, seeing the two castles from a different angle. We walked around the island trying to see everything in the two hours we had before the boat came back for us. We finished up at Church Quay with just enough time to visit the little church and the graveyard. So many lives lost at sea. It was a choppy boat ride back.
Our last night on the Isles of Scilly and we treated ourselves to dinner at the Star Castle Hotel built-in 1593 on the fortified Garrison Hill just west of Hugh Town. It was quite a climb up but the views were lovely. We had a fabulous dinner and an opportunity to explore the castle before walking back down.
The ferry did not leave until 4pm so we enough time to explore our final island, St. Agnes, before sailing. The walk around St.Agnes was lovely, the mist cleared a bit although it was still a grey day. We stopped for ice cream at Troy Town farm where it is made. The birdlife was abundant, partly because of the island’s rat-free status. Posters everywhere reminded us that it was rat-free, asking us to report any sightings immediately! The tide was out so we were able to walk across the sand bar to Gugh for a quick look around. The sun came out just in time for us to enjoy one more drink on the Isles in the garden of the Turks Head right next to the Quay.
St Mary’s > Sennen Cove
Leaving the Isles, behind our next stop was Sennen Cove. What a lovely setting this was! Our B&B was great and the breakfast was lovely with home-roasted coffee.
We had hoped to do the Lands End parkrun. The official run had not restarted, but we decided to do the route anyway and set out at about 7.30am. It was a lovely clear day and the route was easy to find, starting at Lands End and heading out to Sennen before turning back. It was a beautiful footpath, with wild flowers and stunning views. We both enjoyed our first and only run of the holiday in such a lovely setting.
Sennen Cove > St Ives
St. Ives was our next stop and our visit there clashed with the G7. The walk up to our Shepherd’s Hut was lined with Police Officers, every 20 metres or so, apparently they had to maintain a line of sight so each officer could see the one before and the one after them along a fairly bendy steep hill. It was good to have a reason to stop and chat as we dragged our cases up in the sun - we found officers from Lancashire, London, Wales, and two from our hometown of Newcastle. The good weather had now returned so we dropped off our bags and went back down the hill into St. Ives. After five days of walking an average of 12 miles a day St. Ives was more leisurely. We spent most of the day relaxing on Porthminster Beach and with the sunshine came a return to my daily swim.
After an afternoon spent on the beach, we wandered through the narrow streets of St. Ives across to Porthmeor beach where we had a lovely early supper at Porthmeor Beach Cafe. We hadn’t booked and I think we were lucky to get a table, especially one with such a panoramic view over the beach which was still very busy. The day ended with a walk back up the hill and more conversations with different officers as there had now been a shift change.
The next day was more relaxing, again on the beautiful Porthminster Beach. This time we had the added advantage of being entertained by the G7 Protesters, dancing, singing, playing drums, and blowing whistles. There was a huge police presence but it felt fairly low-key. We ate dinner at the Porthminster Beach Cafe, which we had booked, again we had a lovely seat on the terrace with views across the beach and to the Gun Boats anchored in the bay. It had been a hot day and we had both caught the sun. We started our walk back up the hill stopping to sit at the Malakoff and watch a display by the Red Arrows. I am not sure if it was for our benefit or for the dignitaries at the G7.
St Ives > Fowey
Leaving St. Ives was much easier, the Police and the roadblocks had all gone. We were soon in St Erth and onboard a train heading for our final stop in Fowey, pronounced Foy. We were greeted at our B&B with a perfectly chilled glass of wine which we drank in their pretty courtyard garden. Although we had enjoyed our stay in the Shepherd’s Hut we really did appreciate a return to a sparkling clean ensuite and a big comfortable bed!
In Fowey we meandered through the little streets making our way along the promenade to Readymoney Beach. This was a little cove with a small ice cream shop and nothing else, it was sheltered and quite a perfect place for a swim. Swimming was different here, none of the waves of St. Ives just a calm and inviting sea. We stayed for quite a while.
Fowey was the stomping ground of Daphne DuMaurier and there were references to her everywhere, our room was even called the “Rebecca Room”. With our host Ben’s directions the next day we walked to Polridmouth beach, believed to be the inspiration for Rebecca, passing Menabilly House, where Daphne DuMaurier lived for a few years. The National Trust walk took us from the cove up to Gribben Head where the wildflowers were lovely. The footpath was an avenue of foxgloves alive with the sound of buzzing bees. And of course, Polridmouth was perfect for a swim. We had a nice dinner at Haverners, again in Fowey booking in advance was essential.
For the last day of our holiday, we went for the tried and tested walking and swimming combination. We choose another National Trust’s Hall Walk, starting with the Bodinnick Ferry which dropped us off at Ferryside, the childhood holiday home of DuMaurier that is still owned by her family. This was a stunning walk around the estuary with loads of historical points of interest and beautiful views. It ends in Polruan with its pretty houses and the working shipyard where we caught a second ferry back to Fowey. We indulged in pintxos at Pintxos on the promenade near the ferry drop-off. If we had had more time we would have hopped on another ferry to Mevigissay to visit the lost gardens of Heligan. Instead, we returned to Readymoney Cove for one final swim. Our final dinner was at Sam’s which was great and then it was home to bed ready for the trip home to Newcastle in the morning.
We have had a truly memorable holiday and enjoyed every minute of it! Thank you, Byway!
