The South West Coast Path winding across open clifftop above the Atlantic near Land’s End.

Cornwall · Things to do · Easy coastal walks

Best easy coastal walks in Cornwall.

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

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

A considered list

Cornwall has six hundred and thirty miles of coast path, and most of it will make your knees hurt. This is the other list — the walks that work when you’re not training for anything, when you’re with someone who doesn’t own hiking boots, or when you just want to be outside for an hour without turning it into an expedition.

The South West Coast Path is one of the great long-distance trails in Britain, and its reputation precedes it — usually in the form of someone telling you about the section where they couldn’t feel their calves for three days. The path earns that reputation on the north coast between Hartland and Port Isaac, where the gradients are genuinely brutal and the National Trail sign feels more like a threat than an invitation.

But the path has a gentler side. There are sections where the gradient stays civil, the footing is kind, and the views are just as good as anywhere on the harder stretches — sometimes better, because you’re not staring at your feet the whole time. The six walks below are chosen for that quality. They range from two to five miles, they’re all signposted, and not one of them requires you to own a pair of Scarpas. What they do require is a willingness to turn off the A30 and spend an hour with the sea.

Bude to Widemouth Bay

Coastline north of Widemouth Bay — folded rock strata and clifftop path above the Atlantic.
Derek Harper / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Three miles of clifftop path from Summerleaze Beach to the broad sand at Widemouth. The geology does most of the talking — the rock here has been folded and tilted into near-vertical chevrons that look like the earth is trying to stand up on edge. The path itself is well maintained and mostly level, with two short climbs that a seven-year-old will manage without complaint. The cafe at Widemouth is a fair reward. Return on the inland footpath through Poundstock for a seven-mile loop, or catch the summer bus back.

The details

3 miles one way · 1.5 hours · Easy · Starts from Summerleaze car park, Bude · Bus return available in summer

Mousehole to Lamorna Cove

Lamorna Cove — granite cliffs framing turquoise water and a rocky beach on Cornwall’s south coast.
Cyr~commonswiki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

A quiet three-mile stretch that most visitors never find, because it sits between two places that aren’t on anyone’s main itinerary. The path leaves Mousehole — a fishing village so small it can barely hold two cars side by side — and follows the granite coast south past Penzer Point to Lamorna, a cove that the artists have been painting since the 1880s and that still looks exactly the way they painted it. The walking is gentle, the subtropical vegetation is unexpected, and the Lamorna Wink at the far end has been serving pints since before anyone alive remembers.

The details

3 miles one way · 1.5 hours · Easy · Starts from Mousehole harbour · Walk back or taxi from Lamorna

Marazion to Penzance

St Michael’s Mount seen from Penzance across Mount’s Bay — the castle on its tidal island.
Hugh Llewelyn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The easiest walk on this list and arguably the one with the best single view in Cornwall. From Marazion the path follows the beach and then the promenade along the curve of Mount’s Bay, with St Michael’s Mount sitting in the water to your left for the entire walk like a piece of scenery that someone forgot to take down after the play. The surface is flat — tarmac promenade for most of it, firm sand at the Marazion end — and there is no gradient to speak of. Pushchair-friendly, wheelchair- accessible for much of the route, and the kind of walk that rewards lingering.

The details

3 miles one way · 1 hour · Very easy · Flat throughout · Starts from Marazion car park · Bus or train return from Penzance

Bedruthan Steps — dramatic sea stacks and Atlantic swell along Cornwall’s north coast.
The sea stacks at Bedruthan are some of the most photographed formations on the Cornish coast — sheer pillars of slate carved by millennia of Atlantic weather, best seen from the clifftop path above. Photograph · Len Williams / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The best coastal walks in Cornwall are the ones where you spend more time looking at the sea than at your feet.

Fowey Hall Walk

The Fowey estuary — wooded creek banks and the river opening toward the sea.
Peter Jeffery / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)

A four-mile circular that follows the eastern bank of the Fowey estuary through oak woodland, past a memorial to a Civil War skirmish, and out to a headland with views down to Polruan and the open sea. The Hall Walk has been a public promenade since the Mohun family opened it in the sixteenth century, and it still feels like a designed experience — every turn reveals a new angle on the river. Take the Bodinnick ferry from Fowey to start. The gradient is the most moderate of any south coast estuary walk, and the path is shaded for most of its length.

The details

4 miles circular · 2 hours · Easy–moderate · Bodinnick ferry from Fowey · Shaded woodland most of the route

Falmouth to Swanpool

Swanpool Beach, Falmouth — wide sandy bay with headland and calm sea.
Colin Park / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Two miles of easy coast path from Gyllyngvase Beach south past Castle Beach and around Pendennis Headland to Swanpool, a sheltered lagoon beach with a cafe and a nature reserve behind it. Pendennis Castle sits above the path at the midpoint — Henry VIII built it to defend the Carrick Roads, and it’s still the best viewpoint in Falmouth. The path is wide, well-surfaced, and mostly level. This is the walk to do when you have an hour before dinner and want to earn the glass of wine without breaking a sweat.

The details

2 miles one way · 45 minutes · Easy · Starts from Gyllyngvase Beach · Walk back or bus from Swanpool

St Agnes to Chapel Porth

Wheal Coates engine house on the cliff edge west of St Agnes Beacon — Atlantic beyond.
Colin Park / Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The most dramatic walk on this list, and the one with the most ascent — but still well within easy territory. From St Agnes Head the path drops past Wheal Coates, a ruined tin mine engine house perched on the cliff edge in a position so theatrical it looks staged. Chapel Porth is a narrow beach at the bottom, backed by dark cliffs and reached by a steep but short descent. The Hedgehog ice cream from the National Trust kiosk at the beach is the best ice cream on the Cornish coast, and I will not be taking questions. Return the same way, or loop inland via Mithian.

The details

2.5 miles one way · 1.5 hours · Easy–moderate · Some steps · Starts from St Agnes Head car park · NT kiosk at Chapel Porth

A word on the coast path

The South West Coast Path is a National Trail, which means it’s waymarked with acorn signs and maintained by a small army of volunteers and council workers. In practice the quality varies: around Falmouth and St Ives the path is wide and well-drained; between Bude and Tintagel it can be muddy, narrow, and exposed. All six walks on this page are on well-maintained sections, but “well-maintained” in Cornwall still means unfenced cliff edges, the occasional stile, and mud after rain.

The one piece of advice worth repeating: check the tide before you set out if your walk ends at a beach. Chapel Porth and Widemouth both shrink significantly at high tide. The RNLI beach finder and Magicseaweed both publish daily tide tables, and you’ll thank yourself for the thirty seconds it takes to look.

Stay nearby

A fisherman’s cottage in Mousehole, sleeps four

Mousehole is the starting point for walk two on this list, ten minutes from Marazion and Penzance, and the kind of village you’ll want to come back to. Stone walls, harbour views, a pub within fifty metres.

From £580 / week shoulder season · £1,100 peak

See dates on Sykes

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