The South West Coast Path near Land's End — open clifftop path above the Atlantic.

Cornwall · Walks

Walks in Cornwall.

Coast path drama, wooded river valleys, and mine-stack headlands — every walk worth lacing up for, organised by town.

Photograph — Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Start here

Six coastal walks you can do in trainers — gentle gradients, clear paths, and the kind of views that make you forget you're exercising.

The South West Coast Path runs three hundred miles around Cornwall — every wave-cut bay, every fishing harbour, every ruined engine house, every smuggler's cove, joined up in one route. You don't need to do all of it. The trick is picking the short stretches that hold the best of the whole. The walks below are organised by town because that's the most practical lens: where you're staying determines which start points are sensibly close.

Cornwall's walking is more varied than its postcards suggest. The north-coast stretches — Bedruthan, Godrevy, Land's End — are open Atlantic clifftop. The south coast is gentler and more wooded, with estuary paths through ancient oaks at Fowey and Helford. Inland, Bodmin Moor is granite and gorse and almost nobody else. Pick the landscape that suits the energy of the day, not the brochure photograph.

The South West Coast Path between St Agnes and Chapel Porth — heather on the headland and the Atlantic open to the west, with the silhouette of the old engine house at Wheal Coates above. — St Agnes to Chapel Porth — Cornwall's old mining coast, walkable in either direction from a free car park at Wheal Coates. Photograph · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

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Walk one direction with the wind at your back. The Cornish weather changes faster than the forecast says it will, and a five-mile linear path back into a headwind is a different walk from the one you set out on.

What we tell first-time walkers

The Hall Walk above the Fowey estuary — a wooded path through ancient oaks with the river and Polruan visible through the trees. — The Hall Walk above Fowey — a wooded three-hour loop with one of the loveliest river views in the county. Photograph · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Practical notes

The path is signposted with the acorn waymark and is generally well-trodden, but the surface varies from tarmac to mud to scrambled granite within a single mile. Trainers do for most of the short walks listed here; proper walking shoes are essential anywhere on Bodmin Moor or the rougher north-coast stretches. Wind-proof outer layer year-round — the Atlantic decides the weather, not the sky overhead.

Most coast-path stretches don't loop. Either retrace your steps, or plan a one-way walk and use the bus back — the First Bus T1 hugs much of the north coast, and the open-top 300 runs Penzance to St Ives via Land's End in summer. Park-and-walk is the easiest way to avoid the "how do we get back" problem; the National Trust car parks at Boscastle, St Agnes, Kynance and Treyarnon are all good staging points with proper facilities.

The Marazion-to-Penzance promenade walk at low tide with St Michael's Mount across the bay — a flat, surfaced path popular with families and accessible walkers. — Marazion to Penzance — the flat promenade with St Michael's Mount as a backdrop the entire way. Wheelchair- and buggy-friendly. Photograph · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

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