Cornwall

Lost Garden of Heligan - keep out

Dartmoor

Dartmoor Open Prison

St Mawes

St Ives

Cold Pasties

Barbara Hepworth's studio at Trewyn

Barbara Hepworth sculpture in museum garden

Porthmeor beach

Tate exhibit A -  Porthmeor

St Ives Harbour

Ogre - Lost Gardens of Heligan woodland walk

Jungle, Lost Garden of Heligan

Camillia

Vegetable garden - Heligan

Watergate Bay from fifteen

Cornwall is a long haul from Scotland, which explains why it is 25 years since my last visit when we drove down 650miles in a day for a fortnight's holiday.  It was family birthday month so we decided on a 6-day excursion with a chance to visit some other places en route. I was intrigued to see how Cornwall had developed since the last visit when it appeared a remote and rather old-fashioned part of the country.

Cornwall became a unitary authority in 2009 and has one of the fastest-growing populations in England, with a population of over 500,000.  The old industries of tin, china clay, fishing are pale imitations of their former glories.  However, Cornwall has cultivated the most lucrative of all new industries and harvested the well-heeled baby boomers. This is annuity tourism and largely from London and the southeast. They have brought considerable extra spending power which is evidenced in house prices, restaurants, potteries, nurseries, delicatessens and a genteel retail trade. The downside is that local people are being squeezed out of the housing market and the UK government has an inbuilt aversion to the provision of social housing. 

The relatively warm climate and Atlantic air provide a perpetual spring to those in their autumnal years. Cornwall has the best superfast broadband in the UK, the most visited gardens and more VW camper vans than white vans.  Top restaurateurs have flocked there as have artists and, with excellent fresh fish, fresh vegetables, ice cream, long distance footpaths and investment in solar power and renewables, the place is riding the wave of sustainable growth.

We picked up a son in Bristol and a daughter in Exeter and took the direct but slow road over Dartmoor to reach Cornwall. The roads were quiet and the moors and tors provided the authentic backdrop for prisons and ponies. We stopped for a hot pastie in Morehampstead but we were still in Devon so it failed the taste test.  We were staying at the Cornwall spa near St Austell and were delighted with the self-catering woodland house which was adjacent to a well-appointed leisure facility. We dumped our stuff and drove down to St Mawes to watch the sunset over the Falmouth estuary.  After early tennis and swimming the next day we travelled to St Ives which provided a perfect location for the Tate and Barbara Hepworth museums. We walked along the beaches, the island and the harbour, bought ice creams and explored the vital urban fabric of the town. In the evening we went to Mevagissey and parked at the end of the harbour which involved negotiating some close encounters with the water's edge in the dark. The town was just stirring to life after the winter break but still had a dozen or so places to eat.

Sunday was a big birthday day so it was tennis or swim, a champagne breakfast and then a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan which were a couple of miles away.  The Eden project had been the alternative but we were delighted with our choice and, having found them, we would return anytime. We had a late birthday lunch at Fifteen overlooking the sun-kissed Watergate bay lolled us into the late afternoon.  We returned via some surfing beaches and conked out with the papers on returning to the house.

The next morning included a final visit to the leisure facility before driving to Exeter station and then onto Bristol airport via Glastonbury, Wells and the Cheddar Gorge.  Cornwall had exceeded expectations.  It was quiet, hospitable and relaxed with great accommodation, good food and perfect weather - probably more sun in three days than we had in a fortnight in July 25 years ago. It has resisted hosting the more commercial seaside activities and has attracted the young laid back job seekers/surfers as well as the older laid back and retired baby boomers. Cornwall offers feel-good respite from the hurly-burly of corporate, monolithic urban Britain.