Cornwall's Creeks, Coves & Coastal Trails

Introduction

Exotic plants and sunny beaches contrast with craggy coves and stormy seas in the county of Cornwall, home to some of England’s most atmospheric landscapes.

With the crashing waves of the Cornish coast never far from sight, we follow in the footsteps of novelist Daphne du Maurier on the South West Coast Path, visiting ancient fishing villages, secluded beaches and sub-tropical gardens. We explore storm-weathered castles, eat in traditional thatched pubs and sail across peaceful estuaries.

One of the Walk’s highlights is a trip to the mysterious Lost Gardens of Heligan, a once-neglected Victorian estate, now fully restored to its former glory.

Walk Summary

Dates	04-Oct-09 - 10-Oct-09
Trip	7 days, 6 nights
Terrain	Contoured coastal paths, riverbank and estuary trails through private estates, with undulation of 150-250 ft. 8-11 miles walking per day.
Price	US$3,795.00 per person double occupancy (single supplement US$430.00) Pay in full on booking to receive US$400 per person Currency Bonus

The Walk begins near Fowey, arrival at St Austell Rail Station and ends in Mawnan Smith, departure from Truro Rail Station.

Walk Itinerary

We'll start here

Sunday

Rendezvous in our lovely hotel on the banks of the river, near Fowey, for The Wayfarers' Welcome Dinner and Introductory Talk.

Overnight: Golant-by-Fowey

Monday

We step from our hotel onto the Saints Way, an ancient trading route across the breadth of Cornwall, taking us to the edge of the town of Fowey where we cross the river of the same name (pronounced Foy as in Joy). Passing Ferryside, Daphne du Maurier's first Cornish home, we follow her footsteps with far reaching views of Fowey and the river before lunch in the ancient fishing village of Polruan. We join the South West Coast path in Fowey where our trail takes us to the setting of Daphne du Maurier's most famous novel, Rebecca.

Overnight: Golant-by-Fowey

Tuesday

We walk through the Georgian harbor of Charlestown before joining the coast path and heading off the beaten track to Trenarren. After finding the secluded beach of Hallane we walk up the valley and down to lunch in the village of Pentewan, once an important harbor to the local China clay industry. This afternoon we head inland to discover the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Overnight: St Mawes

Wednesday

We visit St Mawes Castle before following the river Fal to the hidden church of St Just in Roseland, before crossing the peninsula to lunch in the harbor village of Portscatho. We continue along the South West Coast path and to the Percuil River to return by ferry to our harbor side hotel.

Overnight: St Mawes

Thursday

From St Mawes we board the ferry for Falmouth, where we join a coastal trail for our walk to Mawnan Smith and a pub lunch. A hike along the sparkling Helford River takes us to the world-famous Trebah Gardens.

Overnight: Mawnan Smith

Friday

We cross the river by ferry to the tiny village of Helford then walk the coastal path to the mouth of the estuary at Dennis Head. We see the church of St Anthony-in-Meneage, standing at the water's edge, and follow the creek to the exquisite village of Manaccan for lunch in a thatched pub. We go on to Daphne du Maurier's 'Frenchman's Creek' and home by ferry to Mawnan Smith for our Farewell Dinner.

Overnight: Mawnan Smith

Saturday

The Wayfarers provide a transfer to Truro Rail Station.

This itinerary represents a typical Walk. We prepare itineraries well in advance of the trip and therefore we reserve the right to make changes due to weather, local events or other circumstances - but always to improve the experience of our guests.

Hotels

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The Cormorant Hotel - Sunday & Monday

The Cormorant Hotel

Golant-by-Fowey
Cornwall PL23 1LL

T: +44 (0)1726-833-426
F: +44 (0)1726-833-219
W: www.cormoranthotel.co.uk

The Cormorant Hotel nestles on the hillside, high above the glorious River Fowey; an independent luxury hotel, in a wonderful and peaceful setting, its pride is its personal touch.

All guest bedrooms have a fine river view. They are en-suite, and have lovely beds, with goose feather & down duvets and cotton bed linen. All are equipped with flat screen digital television, free wireless internet access and hot beverage facilities.

The new pool house was recently opened. It houses a beautiful tiled swimming pool and hot tub, both of which enjoy stunning river views.

Hotel Tresanton - Tuesday & Wednesday

Hotel Tresanton

St Mawes
Cornwall TR2 5DR

T: + 44 (0)1326-270-055
F: + 44 (0)1326-270-053
E: info@tresanton.com
W: www.tresanton.com

Originally created in the 1940s as a yachtsman's club, Tresanton is a cluster of old houses set on different levels. Completely restored and redesigned in 1997, the hotel has a casual but elegant atmosphere, very much in keeping with its seaside location. It even boasts its own cinema!

All bedrooms are ensuite with magnificent sea views and are individually furnished with antiques and Cornish art. The restaurant, with a mosaic floor and terraces overlooking the sea, has a calm, cool Mediterranean feel. It specialises in the local fish, organic vegetables and excellent meat from a local Cornish butcher.

Budock Vean Hotel - Thursday & Friday

Budock Vean Hotel

Mawnan Smith
Falmouth
Cornwall TR11 5LG

T: +44 (0)1326-250-288
F: +44 (0)1326-250-892
E: relax@budockvean.co.uk
W: www.budockvean.co.uk

Budock Vean is a privately owned, friendly hotel nestling in 65 acres of award-winning gardens and parkland on the banks of the tranquil Helford River. Its extensive leisure facilities include a health Spa and indoor heated pool, tennis court, golf course, snooker room and private foreshore with peaceful sunlounge.

All bedrooms have private toilet, bath and shower en suite, direct dial telephone, hair dryer, tea & coffee making facilities and TV plus views over the golf course & gardens. Guests can enjoy a walk from the hotel through the valley garden with rare tree ferns, past ponds and waterfalls to the foreshore.

This hotel list is a provided as an example. We may use different hotels of the same quality and style on specific trips. The Wayfarers will notify confirmed travelers of any changes to the hotels.

Photo Gallery

Travel Information

Before & After Your Walk

Visit The Eden Project near St. Austell – a vast conservatory featuring 8,000 trees and shrubs.
Visit the Tate Gallery and Barbara Hepworth's sculpture garden in St Ives
During the Walk there is the option to visit the Maritime Museum in Falmouth

Weather:

Temperatures usually range from around 45º to 65ºF (7º to 18ºC) in spring/autumn and from 60º to 70º F (15º to 21ºC) in summer although it can rise to above 80º F (27ºC) on some days. You are likely to need a light jacket or sweater in the evenings. Rainfall is unpredictable but occurs all year round and can be heavy, even in summer. Equally there can be long spells of warm dry weather so you will need to bring clothing to accommodate all situations.

To see more Travel Information and a list of our recommended tips please register or sign in. Once you confirm a booking for this walk, as a registered website member, you will be able to access detailed Joining Instructions including exact arrival and departure points and times as part of the Travel Information.

FAQs

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Are there any hidden costs?
Our Vacations do not include the cost of air or rail fares to and from the destination or tips for your walk leader and manager.
How large are the Groups?
Our maximum group size is 16, but groups average between 8-12 people.
Will I feel welcome as a single traveler?
Yes! Our walks are the perfect environment of comfortable camaraderie for the single traveler.
Can you accomodate special diets?
Yes!
How physically fit do I have to be to do a Wayfarers Walk?
If you are in good health and reasonably fit you will be comfortable participating in a walk.

Ask a question

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Reading List

Frenchman's Creek By: Daphne Du Maurier

Buy book: Frenchman's Creek

Daphne du Maurier's FRENCHMAN'S CREEK is a compelling story and a good listen. It's a seventeenth-century costume drama, in which the lead player, Lady St. Columb ("milady"), has left London and her husband out of boredom and gone alone to her country estate in Cornwall. There she encounters a French pirate, a man of wit, urbanity, civility, and charm and, on a whim, joins his pirate crew.

Rebecca By: Daphne Du Maurier

Buy book: Rebecca

The new, mousey Mrs De Winter marries Maxim after a whirlwind romance. They return to Manderley where she is haunted by the memory of Maxim's first wife Rebecca. She is tortured by the housekeeper Mrs Danvers into believing that the beautiful Rebecca was the greatest thing since sliced loaf and that Maxim was her devoted slave who would never get over her death and to whom his new wife means nothing. This book has everything you could ask for - murder, mystery, romance and atmosphere.

Ross Poldark (Poldark Saga) By: Winston Graham

Buy book: Ross Poldark (Poldark Saga)

Tired from a grim war in America, Ross Poldark returns to his land and his family. But the joy he has anticipated turns sour, for his father is dead, his estate is derelict and the girl he loves is engaged to his cousin. But his sympathy for the destitute miners and farmers of the district leads him to rescue a half-starved urchin girl; from a fairground brawl and take her home-an act which alters the whole course of his life

Vanishing Cornwall the Spirit and History of Cornwall By: Daphne and Browning

Buy book: Vanishing Cornwall the Spirit and History of Cornwall

No one knew Cornwall as well as Daphne DuMaurier, and in this nonfiction work she paints a loving portrait of the region and especially its dramatic coastline. Deftly recounting its history and folklore, describing its people and their customs, and visiting its most outstanding physical features, she laments the loss of what was and celebrates the beauty that persists. Vanishing Cornwall is not so much a travelogue as a tribute.

No Corners for the Devil By: Olive Etchells

Buy book: No Corners for the Devil

The Baxter family, newcomers to a farming community on the Roseland Peninsula of Cornwall, is settling in well. The neighbors have welcomed them, and they like their seaside home. Things change when the family's younger son discovers the body of a teenage girl on the beach. Sally Baxter, the mother, must protect him while fighting for his older brother, Luke, who is labeled by police as the chief suspect in the crime. Sally must also try to find out why her husband seems so indifferent to all that is happening. The devastated parents of the murdered girl and the reactions of the neighbors add to Sally's dilemma. DCI Channon, the lead investigator, a quiet and methodical man, must keep his cynical partner in check while dealing with his growing attraction to Sally.

Notes from a Small Island By: Bill Bryson

Buy book: Notes from a Small Island

Before his return to the U.S. after a 20-year residence in England, journalist Bryson embarked on a farewell tour of his adopted homeland. His trenchant, witty and detailed observations of life in a variety of towns and villages will delight Anglophiles. Traveling only on public transportation and hiking whenever possible, Bryson wandered along the coast through Bournemouth and neighboring villages that reinforced his image of Britons as a people who rarely complain and are delighted by such small pleasures as a good tea. In Liverpool, the author's favorite English city, he visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum to experience its past as a great port. Interweaving descriptions of landscapes and everyday encounters with shopkeepers, pub customers and fellow travelers, Bryson shares what he loves best about the idiosyncrasies of everyday English life in this immensely entertaining travel memoir.

A Royal Duchy: Portrait of the Duchy of Cornwall By: David Burnett

Buy book: A Royal Duchy: Portrait of the Duchy of Cornwall

An illustrated survey of the history and character of the Duchy of Cornwall, which traces the origins of the Duchy in the fourteenth century and its development into the organization operating today under the guidance of HRH The Prince of Wales.

A Walk Through Britain By: John Hillaby

Buy book: A Walk Through Britain

What does it mean to be English these days? That's what journalist and TV quiz master Paxman wonders in this study of British identity. A humorous, ironic, nostalgic, skeptical, dilettantish, mildly eccentric, self-deprecating and proud account (like its subject), the book surveys the various aspects of stereotypical English identity one by one in realms ranging from sex to food. Although he occasionally gives too much credence to flimsy stereotypes and is unnecessarily harsh on the subject of the cult of the English countryside, on the whole, Paxman offers an intriguing investigation. His sociohistorical survey rambles through characteristic attitudes toward foreigners, the weather, religion, the home, sport, language and the countryside. Based on book research, personal observation and Paxman's interviews with Brits including John Cleese and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, this odd collection of theoretical musings, historical tidbits and quirky observations should serve as both a corrective and a comfort for Anglophiles in Britain and elsewhere.

Avalon: A Novel By: Anya Seton

Buy book: Avalon: A Novel

This saga of yearning and mystery travels across oceans and continents to Iceland, Greenland, and North America during the time in history when Anglo-Saxons battled Vikings and the Norsemen discovered America. The marked contrasts between powerful royalty, landless peasants, Viking warriors and noble knights are expertly brought to life in this gripping tale of the French prince named Rumon. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast on his quest to find King Arthur's legendary Avalon, Rumon meets a lonely girl named Merewyn and their lives soon become intertwined.

Bella Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1818-1820 By: Winston Graham

Buy book: Bella Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1818-1820

In the 12th and final novel of Graham's acclaimed series, which debuted in 1945, the Poldark and Warleggan families continue to feud and try to deal with personal losses and social unrest after the Napoleonic wars. As the story opens, Valentine Warleggan's paternity still poisons the atmosphere, and his financial and marital troubles form a major narrative strand set firmly against the saga's familiar background of Cornwall. Meanwhile, Bella Poldark's desire for a musical career takes her to stages in London and France, where she is involved with rival suitors. A host of other characters and subplots, including a series of murders, keeps the action bubbling.

Betjeman's Cornwall By: John Betjeman

Buy book: Betjeman's Cornwall

John Betjeman first fell in love with Cornwall during his childhood holidays and returned to it yearly until his death. As this collection shows, it has inspired some of his best poems and most evocative prose.

Daphne Du Maurier By: Margaret Forster

Buy book: Daphne Du Maurier

Prolific English author Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) was best known for her imaginative suspense novels (especially Rebecca, 1938), although she also published biographies and plays. Here Forster (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) sharply analyzes du Maurier's work and, aided by access to previously unavailable papers and correspondence, illuminates her subject's character. Du Maurier hid an intensely passionate nature behind the facade of a reserved wife and mother. Aware of her sexual attraction to women since childhood, she repressed her bisexual urges during the early years of her marriage to British war hero Major F. A. M. "Tommy" Browning, with whom she had three children. During WW II she became involved with another man and afterward had an affair with actress Gertrude Lawrence. In a portrait revealing of du Maurier's inner and everyday life, Forster energetically limns a personality that will surprise and engross readers.

The English Landscape: It's Character and Diversity By: Bill Bryson

Buy book: The English Landscape: It's Character and Diversity

You are very lucky in England. The English Landscape is a stunning volume of essays and photographs celebrating the breadth, diversity, and delicacy of the English countryside. A distinguished selection of writers such as the Duchess of Devonshire, Richard Mabey, Anna Parord, Christopher Lloyd, Robin Hanbury-Tenbison, Marina Warner, Dame Jennifer Jenkins, and David Bellamy pay homage to their favorite parts of the English landscape. Complete with color photographs and maps, The English Landscape will engage Anglophiles, travel enthusiasts, and literature buffs alike.

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England By: Antonia Fraser

Buy book: The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England

In 1066 William the Conqueror captured the English throne, and since that time 39 kings and queens have reigned over the British dominions. Their lives, alliances, whims, delusions, and intrigues have had an incalculable influence on the culture, politics, and very boundaries of the entire world. The names and dates come fast and furiously, but here are a few facts: Over half of France was in England's possession during the reign of Henry II. Richard III was the last English monarch to die on the battlefield. And, as a 19-year-old princess, Queen Elizabeth II joined the Auxiliary Transport Service as a mechanic in the final days of WWII.

The Making of the English Landscape By: W.G. Hoskins

Buy book: The Making of the English Landscape

The best introduction to the evolution of the the English landscape. For professionals, students, travelers and all who seek to understand the processes - natural and human - behind the scenery, this is the best place to start. Erudite and readable with great photos and illustrations. Must take it with you on your next visit.

The Secret Lion: Fact/Fiction History By: C.W. Gortner

Buy book: The Secret Lion: Fact/Fiction History

It's 1553, and, with England's teenaged King Edward VI near death, Northumberland is the country's de facto ruler. Next in line for the throne are Edward's sisters, first Mary and then Elizabeth. But Northumberland doesn't intend to relinquish his power; he determines to keep control of the throne for himself, and no expediency is beneath him. Once you step into the luxurious pages of The Secret Lion, you will find yourself on an excursion full of intricate plots, rich settings and historical themes. The time is sixteenth century Tudor England, during the riveting and exquisite renaissance period. Brendan Prescott is ordered as squire to pompous Lord Robert Dudley, a position he soon finds filled with peril. Trust and honor are fiercely tested when those who hold an esteemed position in the high court serve most prominently as a threat. It would seem the castle walls have eyes and ears. As a series of lies and secrets unravel, the young squire must change the course of events placed before him to ensure Princess Elizabeth's future while facing haunting elements about his past.

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare By: Stephen Greenblatt

Buy book: Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

There's no shortage of good Shakespearean biographies. But Stephen Greenblatt, brilliant scholar and author, reminds us that the "surviving traces" are "abundant but thin" as to known facts. Greenblatt uses the "verbal traces" in Shakespeare's work to take us "back into the life he lived and into the world to which he was so open." Whenever possible, he also ushers us from the extraordinary life into the luminous work. The result is a marvelous blend of scholarship, insight, observation, and, yes, conjecture--but conjecture always based on the most convincing and inspired reasoning and evidence. Particularly compelling are Greenblatt's discussions of the playwright's relationship with the university wit Robert Greene (discussed as a chief source for the character of Falstaff) and of Hamlet in relation to the death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet, his aging father, and the "world of damaged rituals" that England's Catholics were forced to endure. It is the story, too, of 16th- and 17th-century England writ large, the story of religious upheaval and political intrigue, of country festivals and brutal public executions, of the court and the theater, of Stratford and London, of martyrdom and recusancy, of witchcraft and magic, of love and death: in short, of the private but engaged William Shakespeare in his remarkable world.

What's Next?

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For more information contact our team who are waiting for your questions. Alternatively we suggest you choose one of the following:

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