The Royal family is right, this truly is Britain’s loveliest seaside village.
Last weekend, The Telegraph’s Senior Travel Writer, Greg Dickinson, shone a spotlight on St Mawes. For those who didn’t catch the feature, we’re delighted to share a few highlights from Greg’s piece, accompanied by our own photography.
The ‘St Tropez of England’ has several remarkable hotels, gardens, delicious food and a castle. Here’s how to holiday there in style. Next time somebody asks me to recommend Britain’s finest seaside village, I will send them some boat shoes, a Panama hat and the coordinates for St Mawes in Cornwall. St Mawes is no secret, but unlike Padstow and St Ives, it has retained a sense of class and mystique without being overrun or homogenised by tourism. It’s probably down to the geography.
The ferry is an apt way of arriving, given the boating heritage of St Mawes. The village is set around a sheltered harbour on the eastern side of the Fal Estuary, one of the best places in the country for sailing. The village’s high-end waterfront hotels have a toe in the water, too – Idle Rocks offers sailing lessons, and the Hotel Tresanton even has its own yacht, Pinuccia, available for hire.
The result is a pleasing boat-bobbing mildness to the place. If you don’t believe me, ask the royals. King Charles III and Queen Camilla often visited during their annual visit to the county as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. It was a favourite stop-on for Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother during trips on the Royal Yacht Britannia, and more recently Prince William and Princess Kate have brought their family this way.
As you enter the village from the west, Marine Parade is lined with thatched houses and white-washed fisherman’s cottages (most of which, alas, are second homes these days). You could easily spend a morning dipping in and out of the shops and galleries along the waterfront, like the Waterside Gallery or Bridie and Bert, which sells high-quality retro beachwear. The small village deli is stocked with Cornish spirits, crab baguettes and jams. Another bonus, and not always a given in a Cornish harbour town, is that you can go for a swim in St Mawes. Summers Beach, a sheltered spot to the east of the village, is suitable, as is Tavern Beach, towards the castle, which also has good rock-pooling. Right in the centre, Harbour Beach, only accessible during low tide, is suitable for dogs year-round. Beware, though, there are no lifeguards on duty in St Mawes.
There’s no avoiding the fact that St Mawes is incredibly wealthy. House prices can reach £5m (you’ll be able to identify the prime properties, on the hill overlooking the harbour), and the sorts of yachts anchored in the waters have got bigger and shinier in recent years. Depending on your disposition, you might find it all a bit snobbish. But then again, you might find the yacht-y, refined shtick to be an entertaining escape from reality. If you are looking for a convenient base to explore the big-hitting sights across Cornwall, St Mawes might not be the best choice. You’re here for the unique cut-off spirit of the place, not for its connections.
High on your St Mawes to-do list should be a visit to the intact, clover leaf-shaped St Mawes Castle (adults £10.40, children £6.30), which was built by Henry VIII. Kids will love all the cannons lined up on the tiered lawns overlooking the bay. After, walk up the road to Lamorran House Gardens (£14 entry), an Italianate Garden filled with tumbling waterways and little bridges. Just about every local I spoke to implored me to walk the Cornish coastal path from the village to the church in St Just in Roseland (approx 1hr each way), which has one of the prettiest churchyards in England. In the summer, you can catch the 10-minute ferry across the bay (£8.50 return) to Place Creek. Here you can walk to St Anthony’s Lighthouse or embark on an adventurous five-mile hike to get some fresh seafood at the laid-back Hidden Hut, overlooking Porthcurnick Beach. For such a tiny village, the dining options in St Mawes are wide-ranging and of a very high calibre. For lunch, take your pick from St Mawes Bakery down on the quay, which runs occasional pasty-crimping sessions, or the neighbouring St Mawes Seafood Bar, which serves super platters and has an oyster shucking station.
For an afternoon tipple, take your pick from The Rising Sun, with St Austell beers on tap and a big terrace at the front, or the more traditional Victory Inn on a narrow street sloping down to the quay. For a cocktail, Hotel Tresanton has a breezy Mediterranean-style Beach Club overlooking the bay. Come evening, for a sit-down meal, take your pick from the St Mawes Hotel, Idle Rocks, the highly acclaimed Watch House or Hotel Tresanton. The geranium-peppered terrace at Tresanton is as pleasant a dining spot as you’ll find anywhere in Cornwall. The menu rotates based on the season: on my visit I opted for scallops to start, bass for main and a chocolate fondant to round it off. Sublime.
I asked Liz Branson, who has lived in St Mawes for 29 years, what makes St Mawes special. “The community,” she said. “It’s very strong. Everyone looks after everybody else. The air, the sea... it’s so beautiful here. But most of all, it’s the people who live here. “No matter how cold it is, get in the sea, even if you quickly plunge in. In the village there are loads of places to eat, to shop, to watch the world go by.”
Miles Carden, CEO of Falmouth Harbour, added: “I live here because there are great people here. The community is about sailing, boating, yachting, and the sea. That’s what makes this place lovely.
