StMawes winsroyal approval...
THERE is a photo o f Prince Charles and Camilla on the ferry that shuttles between St Mawes and Falmouth, across Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula. The Prince is hiding from sea spray under an umbrella, hooting with laughter as his wife tries to dodge the salty water.
It was taken on the day she launched a boat in her name, and confirms how much she and her husband love St Mawes, where the white-washed cottages are as dazzling in the painterly light as any Greek island village.
On sunny days, strolling along the front with views across the bay to soft green hills slipping into turquoise seas around St Anthony’s lighthouse is positively life enhancing.
The Queen always used to put in here on Britannia, coming ashore through a sub-tropical garden to Penolva, an elegant waterfront villa built on the rocks, for lunch with her friend, City bigwig Dick Wilkins. And now it’s my turn. A pile of scones, cream and strawberry jam is waiting in the farmhouse- style kitchen, plus toys for young ones, Netflix TV, wi-fi and board games for adults.
You enter on the upper floor where the four en- suite bedrooms are fashioned with coastal touches in cheerful colours. Then you descend a sweeping staircase past striking modern art to a formal dining room and spectacular open living space.
There’s a concierge service, housekeeper, boatman, dinner cooked by private chef — and spa treatments. Book it for a special family occasion.
But it’s not all pricey. We enjoy beer-battered fish and chips from the Watch House takeaway just as much.
Boatman Mark Bower speeds us up the River Fal to the waterside Pandora Inn in Restronguet Creek, once the home of the Captain who brought the Bounty mutineers home from Tahiti.
Then it’s on to the12th century St Just Church, said by John Betjeman to be the loveliest on earth, wrapped in rosebud camellias and palms. There will be services there on Easter Sunday.
Sometimes we struggle to love our own country — but St Mawes will have you cooing in no time.
TRAVEL FACTS
PENOLVA sleeps eight and costs £4,500 per week in low season, and £6,950 in high season (0800 088 6622, stmawesretreats.co.uk)