9 miles — 20 minutes by car
Porthcurno & the Minack Theatre
Turquoise water below granite cliffs, and an open-air theatre cut into the cliff above it.
Porthcurno has the clearest water in West Cornwall and the Minack Theatre directly above it — a theatre carved out of the cliff face by Rowena Cade, where the sea sits behind the stage.
Book performances well ahead; the season runs through the summer and sells out. The beach below is worth the day on its own.
Practical
- Getting there
- 20 minutes by car; parking at Porthcurno and at the Minack
- Best for
- Swimming, theatre, the Telegraph Museum
- From the house
- Chywoone Hill, Newlyn — 9 miles — 20 minutes by car
Also within reach
A walk downhill — 10 minutes
Newlyn
Britain's biggest fishing port by value of catch, and the reason the painters came.
2 miles — 6 minutes by car
Mousehole
A granite village around a harbour the size of a courtyard, and the best Christmas lights in Cornwall.
6 miles — 15 minutes by car
St Michael's Mount
The island castle at Marazion, reached on foot across the causeway at low tide.