Round Cornwall from Plymouth

Editor's note

Two nights for Looe, Eden and Heligan. Walk down into Polperro, a fishing village packed into a cleft that ran contraband openly in the 18th century, and hear that story at the Heritage Museum on the quay; the coast path goes on to Talland Bay, and Looe is a working fishing port. At the Eden Project, built in a worked-out china clay pit, cross the canopy walkway in the largest indoor rainforest in the world. At Heligan, find Europe's only surviving pineapple pit and the tree ferns of the Jungle, then walk down to the harbour at Mevagissey.

Editor's note

Two nights for Truro, Falmouth and the Lizard. Truro's cathedral, built between 1880 and 1910, was the first Anglican cathedral raised on a new site in England since Salisbury; find the old St Mary's aisle kept in its south side. Henry VIII's Pendennis Castle held out through Parliament's long siege of 1646 and looks across Carrick Roads to St Mawes, with the National Maritime Museum Cornwall on the quay below. On the Lizard, stand at the most southerly point of mainland Britain, then go down to Kynance Cove at low tide to walk round the stacks.

Editor's note

Two nights in the far west, among granite and old mines. Hike the South West Coast Path from the Crowns engine houses on the cliffs at Botallack south towards Land's End, the westernmost point of mainland England. At Geevor, which worked until 1990, go underground and walk the dressing floors, then watch the Levant beam engine of 1840 run on steam above shafts that ran out under the Atlantic. See a play at the Minack, the cliff theatre Rowena Cade began building in 1931. In Penzance, swim in the Jubilee Pool, heated from 410m down and the only geothermal lido in the country.

Editor's note

One night for St Agnes and Newquay. At Wheal Coates, three engine houses of a tin mine that closed in 1889 stand on the cliff; walk out to the Towanroath pumping house halfway down, follow the coast path to Chapel Porth and climb St Agnes Beacon for the view along the mining coast. Fistral is the most consistent beach break in Britain: take a surf lesson or hire a board there, though its powerful westerly swells suit intermediate and advanced surfers. On a really big swell, walk out to the headland to see the Cribbar reef break.

Editor's note

Two nights around Padstow, a working harbour inside the Camel estuary behind the Doom Bar. Cycle the Camel Trail from the quay to Wadebridge along the old railway, flat and traffic-free, take the ferry across the estuary to Rock, or walk out to Stepper Point, then eat fish on the harbour. At Tintagel, cross the footbridge opened in 2019 to the island half of the 13th-century castle, where Geoffrey of Monmouth placed Arthur's conception. Go down to Merlin's Cave at low tide, and walk the coast path to Barras Nose for the view back.

Editor's note

The last of the ten nights, on Bodmin Moor, before the crossing home. Jamaica Inn, an 18th-century coaching inn alone on the moor road at Bolventor, stood on the route contraband travelled inland and inspired Daphne du Maurier's novel of 1936; it has a smugglers' museum. Walk out to Dozmary Pool, where one story says Excalibur went back into the water. By Minions, the Hurlers are three Bronze Age stone circles, with the Cheesewring on Stowe's Hill above. The moor has dark-sky status, and the darkest skies come with the long nights from October to March.