We couldn’t very well have a walking tour without walking, so we set out on foot from our base of explorations in Carbis Bay toward the quaint English seaside resort town of St. Ives.
The name comes from St Ia’s cove, and the legend that is so intertwined with this region in Cornwall.
Many of the historic fourth and fifth century Cornish saints came from Ireland, and the story is that Ia was planning to join some of them on that voyage across the sea, but was left behind. As she prayed for a way to make the journey, a leaf floating up to shore and as she watched it began to grow bigger and bigger. Finally she climbed aboard the leaf and floated to this cove.
As we approached the city, we certainly saw that she had picked an ideal spot. The village is nestled around the little bay with several golden beaches that have led it to be twice named Best UK Seaside Town by the British Travel Awards.
Entering on the high road, for a better view, we came to the first of many encounters we would have with the works of Barbara Hepworth. Her bronze sculpture, Epidauros II, adorns the Malakoff overlooking the harbor, so we stopped for a look at both the art and the panorama.
Heading down to the waterfront, we made the church dedicated to St. Ia our first stop. The church was built during the reign of King Henry V from 1410 and 1434 as a chapel of ease, so parishioners would not have to travel several miles to Lelant for services.
It’s eighty-foot high tower served as a landmark for our finding our way around, and inside we found another Barbara Hepworth sculpture, her 1954 Madonna and Child, Bianco del Mare. The stark statue was her dedication to her son Paul who was killed while flying with the Royal Air Force in 1953.
Leaving Saint Ia’s we made a loop around the town, beginning and ending at the waterfront. Among the myriad of shops, inns, and restaurants along the water, The Sloop Inn stood out. Dating back to 1312, this classic fisherman’s pub lays claim to being one of the oldest inns in Cornwall.
From there we walked along the coast of what the locals refer to as The Island, but it is really a peninsula. The point is crowned by the St Nicholas Chapel, which is thought to predate St. Ia’s, but no records survive giving the history of the old stone church. What is known is that it was often used to keep watch for smugglers and for storage by the War Office over the.
Our circular route took us onward to Porthmeor Beach along the way to the Tate Gallery. As a hub for artists form more than a century, St Ives seemed the perfect location for second of the Tate’s regional galleries. Opening in 1993, now nearly half a million people visit each year.
For us, the building, built on the site of an old gasworks, was nearly as interesting as the artwork within it. And the view out over the beach back toward the chapel was even better.
A few blocks through the narrow streets we stopped off for one more encounter with Barbara Hepworth’s work at her Museum and Sculpture Garden.
The pioneer in modern sculpture lived and worked here from 1949 until she passed away in 1975 and it was always her wish that it would become a museum.
The small house and garden is managed by the Tate, but has been left very much as it was during her life. She chose most of the positions for the artwork displays and her workshop remains basically untouched.
By the time we completed our leisurely stroll through the grounds we had put a good ten or twelve miles on our feet for the day, so after an ice cream back at the waterfront we opted to take the train back to Cardis Bay.
Cheating? Maybe, but we easily talked ourselves out of that foolish notion.
We felt like we were simply keeping the self in our self-guided tour.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
See more from our Cornwall walking tour here.
See all of our adventures in England.
A big thank you to Country Walkers for providing this adventure, as always, all opinions are our own.
Tailor-Made Itineraries
See an example: 
A traditional Cornish breakfast starts out similar to our American version with eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, and sausage, but then veers off our usual fare by adding tomato, mushrooms, and black or hog’s pudding, which is a spicy mixture of pork, suet, bread, and oatmeal or pearl barley.
We also found that fish dishes were often offered as an alternative morning meal, and in an attempt to avoid getting bogged down with the same breakfast every day we tried a couple of them. Often it was as simple as baked cod or salmon, but an Indian style curry dish of haddock, rice, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, and butter or cream called kedgeree was a happy discovery. Still, in our minds this may have fit better as a lunch.
Speaking of lunch, a pasty, pronounced pass-tee, is the go to fast food in Cornwall, so much so that they have been given Protected Geographical Indication status. Traditional pasties consist of a sturdy crust filled with beef, potato, swede (also known as turnip in Cornwall) and onion. They are designed to be hand-held, as in hand to mouth.
We first encountered these delicious pies in the 
Another quick bite is the classic pork pie. If it sounds like we’re saying we’d eat our hat it’s because the shape of these little meat pies is how the chapeau got its name. They are generally served cold, like revenge, and not particularly unique to Cornwall, but we had to try one.
Afterwards we were treated to spectacular desserts featuring fresh berries, chocolate, and more of the incredible cream that Cornwall is famous for.
In addition to the bounty from the sea, Cornish food directly reflects the area’s agriculture, so lamb, potatoes, barley, peas, and cabbage are all quite common, and on our last evening we found them all together in a sumptuous stew.
The mount has been the site of legends and lore, as well as a prized piece of real estate, for thousands of years.
Disappointed that we would not be able to climb to the top, we made the best of it and found that there was a lot to be discovered down at the base of the hill.
Up near the walkway entrance we discovered that Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip, as well as Prince Charles & Camilla, also have their footprints immortalized in metal.
A little village is clustered around the waterfront, so we walked the cobblestone streets up and down… both of them. It didn’t take long, especially since it was Saturday and none of the island’s handful of shops or cafes were open.
The single car looks a bit like a coffin on wheels and dates back to Victorian times. For some reason, they chose to dig a tunnel instead of going overland, so it makes the entire trip underground.
At the end of the road we found a lychgate leading to the parish cemetery. The misty gray day seemed perfectly fitting for the scene of moss covered headstones and Cornish Crosses.
We set out from Cardis Bay and climbed about a mile to the first landmark along the way, Knill’s Steeple. This 50ft granite obelisk is a self-styled tribute that John Knill, the eccentric mayor of St Ives, built to himself back in 1782.
We continued upward on our way to the top of Cornwall, Trencrom Hill, the only place in the county where both coasts are visible, the Celtic Sea on our north to the English Channel on the south.
The hill was also said to home to the giant Trecobben, which explains the preponderance of boulders strewn about the area.
All that lay between us and our destination at that point was the Marazion Marsh, so we waded in. This nature reserve has one of Cornwall’s largest reed beds and is an important refuge for breeding and migrating birds.
