Attraction in Cornwall

Glendurgan Garden is a National Trust garden in a steep valley running down to the tidal estuary of the Helford River on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, a garden of exceptional beauty created from 1820 onward by the Fox family of Falmouth that uses the sheltered, frost-free microclimate of the valley to cultivate tender plants of unusual variety and size. The combination of the naturalistic woodland garden, the famous laurel maze, the views down the valley to the Helford River below and the collection of exotic trees and shrubs of considerable age and stature makes Glendurgan one of the most rewarding gardens on the Cornish coast. The Fox family, Quaker merchants of Falmouth whose commercial success in the shipping business provided the resources for both the garden's creation and the plant collecting that enriched it, laid out Glendurgan in the Romantic tradition of naturalistic woodland gardens that was fashionable in the early nineteenth century. The steep valley sides are planted with a mixture of native and exotic trees including enormous specimens of tulip tree, handkerchief tree, giant redwood and a remarkable range of temperate zone species that thrive in the Cornish climate, their scale and age giving the garden an established quality that belongs to an earlier era of garden-making. The laurel maze at Glendurgan, planted in 1833 in the valley bottom, is one of the oldest surviving hedge mazes in England and provides one of the garden's most popular features, the dense laurel hedges creating an authentic maze experience of considerable entertainment. The path leading from the maze down to the small hamlet of Durgan on the Helford shore, past the thatched cottages of the village, extends the garden visit into the broader landscape of the estuary and the coast. The Helford River visible at the bottom of the valley and accessible from Durgan beach provides a beautiful coastal context for a garden visit.

The Minack Theatre near Porthcurno in west Cornwall is one of the most extraordinary and most beautiful outdoor theatres in the world, a clifftop amphitheatre carved from the granite of the Penwith Peninsula above the Atlantic Ocean whose performance space and tiered seating have been created from the living rock of the headland in a setting of natural drama that no conventional theatre can match. The theatre was created by Rowena Cade, who began cutting the stage and seating from the cliff in 1931 with the help of her gardener Billie Rawlings, working through the winters between performance seasons for the rest of her long life, creating with hand tools a theatrical venue of unique quality and character. The first performance at the Minack, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1932, established the tradition of summer theatrical performance in this extraordinary setting that continues to the present day. A full programme of plays, musicals and operas runs throughout the summer season, the performances taking place against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and the Penwith headlands in conditions that make even productions of modest quality memorable by virtue of the setting. The natural acoustic of the granite amphitheatre is excellent, the cliff faces reflecting sound toward the audience with considerable clarity. Rowena Cade's achievement in creating the theatre from raw granite with minimal resources and machinery is one of the most remarkable individual acts of landscape creation in twentieth-century Britain. The exhibition in the visitor centre documents the theatre's history from its creation and the details of Cade's work, which continued into her eighties, provide inspiration to anyone who has ever considered what persistence and vision can achieve. The coastal walking around Porthcurno and the nearby Logan Rock headland, with the Minack's clifftop setting visible from below, provides excellent complementary activities for a theatre visit.

Pendennis Castle stands on a round headland commanding the entrance to the Carrick Roads estuary at Falmouth, a Tudor artillery fort built by Henry VIII in the 1540s as part of his chain of coastal defences against the threat of French and Spanish invasion and subsequently developed into a major fortification that was the last Royalist stronghold in England during the Civil War. English Heritage manages the castle and the combination of the Tudor fortress, the later Elizabethan outer defences and the First and Second World War additions makes Pendennis one of the most complete examples of fortification development in Britain. The original fort of 1540 to 1545, a circular tower surrounded by a circular gun platform, represents the typical plan of Henry's coastal blockhouses that were positioned to engage enemy vessels with cannon fire from both sides of vulnerable harbour entrances. The later development of the outer defences by Elizabeth I in the 1590s, when the threat of Spanish invasion following the Armada remained real, added the substantial curtain walls and bastions that still define the castle's outer profile and demonstrate the shift from medieval to modern defensive planning that occurred during the Tudor period. The Civil War siege of 1646 was one of the most prolonged in Britain, the Royalist garrison under Colonel John Arundell holding out for five months against Parliamentarian forces after the fall of all other Royalist strongholds in England. The garrison surrendered on honourable terms in August 1646, the last English garrison to do so, and their resistance was celebrated even by their opponents as an example of military honour. The headland provides exceptional views over the Carrick Roads, one of the largest natural harbours in the world, and the coastline toward the Lizard and the Helford River.

St Mawes Castle on the Roseland Peninsula opposite Falmouth is one of the finest and best-preserved of Henry VIII's coastal artillery forts, a cloverleaf-plan castle built between 1540 and 1543 to defend the Carrick Roads estuary alongside Pendennis Castle on the opposite shore. English Heritage manages the castle and the combination of the architectural quality, the exceptional preservation of the Tudor fabric and the views across the estuary to Falmouth make it one of the most rewarding fortification visits on the Cornish coast. The castle's distinctive cloverleaf plan, with three semicircular bastions attached to a central cylindrical tower, is one of the most architecturally refined of Henry's coastal blockhouses. The low, compact profile reflects an understanding that tall medieval towers were vulnerable to artillery, and the carved Tudor roses and royal badges on the external stonework provide a level of ornamental detail unusual on a purely military structure. The Latin inscriptions on the external walls praising Henry VIII and his son Prince Edward are among the most complete examples of royal propaganda inscribed in stone from the Tudor period. The ferry from St Mawes to Falmouth provides a delightful water crossing with excellent views of both castles and the full expanse of the Carrick Roads, one of the largest natural harbours in the world.

Tate St Ives is a gallery of modern and contemporary art in Cornwall, opened in 1993 in a building on the Porthmeor beachfront presenting changing exhibitions of work by artists connected with the St Ives tradition and the wider development of modern British art. The gallery's location above one of Cornwall's finest surfing beaches, with Atlantic light flooding through north-facing windows, creates an exceptional relationship between the art and its coastal setting. The St Ives art colony, developing from the 1880s onward, produced some of the most significant British art of the twentieth century. Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, Patrick Heron and Terry Frost worked here, and the colony's engagement with international modernist movements placed this small Cornish town at the centre of British art history. The Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden in the artist's former studio, managed by the Tate, provides the most direct engagement with the most important artist of the St Ives school. The gallery's extension, added in 2017 to provide additional space with direct views of Porthmeor beach, demonstrates continued investment in this exceptional cultural facility. The combination of the gallery, the sculpture garden and the extraordinary St Ives townscape makes this one of the most rewarding cultural destinations in the southwest of England.

Trebah Garden near Mawnan Smith on the Helford River in Cornwall is one of the finest subtropical gardens in Britain, a Victorian garden created in a steep ravine descending to a private beach on the Helford River whose collection of tree ferns, gunnera, rhododendrons and exotic plants from across the Southern Hemisphere creates a lush, jungle-like atmosphere of extraordinary richness. The combination of the ravine setting, the planting and the private beach at the bottom makes Trebah one of the most distinctive and most rewarding garden visits in Cornwall. The garden was created by Charles Fox from 1840 onward in a sheltered south-facing valley that descends approximately sixty metres from the garden entrance to the beach, the microclimate of the ravine protected from frost and wind by the surrounding woodland. The collection of tree ferns from New Zealand and Australia, some of considerable age and height, create the dominant visual character of the lower garden along with the enormous gunnera leaves that reach two metres across in the fertile valley soil. The private beach at the bottom of the garden, accessible to garden visitors, provides a sheltered bathing beach on the Helford River with views across the water to the wooded south bank. American troops of the 29th Infantry Division embarked from this beach for the D-Day landings in June 1944, a historical connection marked by a memorial in the garden.

Tresco Abbey Garden on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly is one of the most extraordinary gardens in the British Isles, a sub-tropical collection planted within the ruins of a Benedictine priory on an island that enjoys the mildest climate in Britain, allowing plants from the Mediterranean, South Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand to grow in the open air in conditions impossible on the British mainland. The garden was created by Augustus Smith from 1834 onward and has been continuously developed by the Dorrien-Smith family who have leased Tresco from the Duchy of Cornwall ever since. The garden consists of terraces climbing the south-facing hillside above the priory ruins, each planted with collections from different geographical regions in a scheme that combines botanical ambition with aesthetic quality. The Valhalla collection at the garden's heart, a museum of wooden figureheads salvaged from ships wrecked on the Scilly rocks over three centuries, provides one of the most unusual and most evocative museum experiences in Britain, the carved and painted figures a direct connection to the maritime history of these islands. The island of Tresco itself, accessible by boat from St Mary's, has no cars and a small resident population, and the combination of the garden, the island beaches and the clear Scilly water creates one of the most complete island experiences available in England. The wider Isles of Scilly, with their remarkable seabird colonies and clear Atlantic water, provide a complementary natural setting for the garden visit.