TRAVEL
Head on out to
Cornwall
Hugely popular during the pandemic for summer escapes, Cornwall is magical in winter too, as Katie Wright discovers
D
ucking into the diminutive St Ives Bakery, where rows of pink and white marbled meringues are stacked in the windows, the inviting aroma of freshly baked pastry envelops you like a warm hug. Rumour has it that the Fore Street bakery sells the seaside town’s finest pasties, and when I arrive in the early afternoon there are only a handful of the day’s shortcrust delicacies left. Keen to expand my horizons, instead of the traditional Cornish 48 | January 2022 | SO Magazine
variety I select a steak and stilton pasty, devouring the thick pastry pocket filled with chunks of tender beef, root vegetables, gravy and tangy blue cheese straight from the brown paper bag while perched on a low wall at the seafront, a few minutes’ walk downhill from the bakery. These baked goods are popular with the locals, too, I discover, when a huge seagull swoops down behind me and grabs the last chunk of mine right out of my hand. Later, as I wander along the winding cobbled streets of St Ives, I spy in the
window of a gift shop an apron illustrated with a seagull and the words: ‘Pasty thief of St Ives’. If only I’d known. There’s lots to see as you munch and mooch your way around West Cornwall’s picturesque fishing port. Since the late 19th century, it’s been a magnet for painters wanting to take advantage of the beautiful light, and is now home to many small, independent galleries as well as Tate St Ives, showcasing works by modern artists linked with the area. Hiking along the rocky path that leads around St Ives Head, it’s not hard to see why artists flocked to the region. On the other side of the steep promontory, bright sunshine illuminates beautiful Porthmeor beach,
Since the late 19th century, West Cornwall been a magnet for painters
where scores of surfers are scattered in the sparkling, jade green waves. Even more breathtaking, Gwithian Towans beach is located on the other side of St Ives Bay. There, grassy sand dunes make way for a huge, flat expanse of white sand. In the distance, whitewashed Godrevy Lighthouse (made famous by Virginia Woolf ’s novel To The Lighthouse) sits atop a tiny outcrop. A few brave wetsuit-clad surfers limber up then jog out, boards under arms, into the whitewash. Feeling a chill just watching them dive in, I head in the opposite direction back to the dunes and the Hungry Horsebox, a mobile café housed in a converted horse transportation box, to indulge in their ultimate hot chocolate, a cup of silky-smooth hot
