St Ives

St Ives sits on Cornwall's north coast around a curved harbour, and has drawn artists since the late 19th century for the particular quality of light bouncing off the sea and the town's white-walled granite cottages.

That artistic history is still visible today at Tate St Ives, an outpost of the Tate gallery built above Porthmeor Beach, and at the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, set in the studio and garden where the sculptor lived and worked until her death in 1975. The narrow lanes of the old town, known as the Downalong, are still lined with fishermen's cottages and net lofts from the town's working past as a pilchard fishing port.

St Ives has beaches on both sides of its headland — Porthmeor, exposed to the Atlantic and popular with surfers, and Porthminster, more sheltered and sandy, facing back towards the harbour. The South West Coast Path runs along the headland between the two.

Getting there

St Ives has its own branch railway line from St Erth on the main Penzance line, one of the more scenic short rail journeys in the country, and is a genuinely easier way in during summer than driving, since the town's streets and parking are tight.