West Cornwall Cottage Holidays

Penzance

Located in one of the world's most beautiful bays, Penzance enjoys its reputation for excellent restaurants and cafés and is reputed to have more restaurants and eating houses per capita then New York! – It also has an enviable reputation as one of the friendliest towns in Cornwall with a warm welcome to visitors from all over the globe. As the business centre of West Cornwall and the focus of commercial activity for the whole Lands End Peninsula, you would be right to expect a bustling, thriving town. Yet Penzance still manages to be true to its heritage and always maintains its olde worlde atmosphere, the town successfully retaining its charm while simultaneously keeping pace with the specific demands of the 21st century. One can find delightful oases of calm amongst the bustle, such as the impressive Penzance Museum and Art Gallery, which houses a substantial collection of paintings, notably from the Newlyn School of Artists and the Morrab Gardens, a delightful haven with a profusion of sub tropical flowers and palm trees – they even have a flowering banana plant! The Exchange Gallery is a major contemporary art space, enabling audiences to see work on a scale never before accessible in the region. It shows an exciting and innovative programme featuring national and international works, alongside the best of those produced in the local area. The main thoroughfare is Market Jew Street, a busy shopping area that leads gently uphill to the handsome classical building of the Market House, behind which other shopping streets of Causewayhead and Alverton Street lead. Everywhere there is a truly charming mix of gorgeous Cornish cottages and superb examples of eclectic Regency and Georgian architecture. In addition to the profusion and diversity of shops, there is much to explore in the town. Discover the 14th century Turk's Head Inn, the Admiral Benbow Inn, containing in their words ' a vast array of seafaring antiques recovered from historic ships' - salvage from wrecks, from ships wheels to figure heads. The word “Penzance” is a corruption of the old Cornish word Pensans which in the ancient Cornish language means 'Holy Headland', referring to the headland to the western side of the harbour on which a chapel was established by early Christians well over 1000 years ago. Today St Mary's Church is located on the same site. At the end of the headland is the famous sea-water swimming pool, an open air Art Deco masterpiece, opened in 1935 and which today is the only one in existence in the UK. The stunning harbour was primarily responsible for the establishing of the town, as it is the first sheltered harbour that is reached from the Atlantic. Indeed, news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805 was brought by returning fishermen and announced at the Union Hotel in Chapel Street before it had even reached London. Further out of town, the coastal walk from Penzance to St Ives and the Tinner's Way provides breathtaking views with romantic granite scenery, historical engine houses and high moorland. With its reed beds, woodland, mudflats, reservoirs, sheltered coastal bays and open moorland, the Penzance area is a birdwatcher's delight and attracts ornithologists from all over the world. Penzance's climate is one of the most temperate anywhere in the British Isles and its location ensures that spring comes earlier than anywhere else in the country which is of course a major contribution to the profusion of beautiful flora and fauna. From Penzance, frequent public bus services travel to all major points of interest in the area including Land's End, Porthcurno and the Minack Theatre, Mousehole, Marazion and St Michael's Mount, while there are both bus and train services to St Ives. Penzance also has excellent transport links to the famous sub-tropical Isles of Scilly, which lie 28 miles to the west of Land's End. Visitors can choose a leisurely 2 hour cruise aboard the Scillonian III, or a fast 20 minute flight on the regular helicopter and plane services.