Cornwall beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world. I love visiting every year with my family and exploring the many beaches. St Ives is a quaint and idyllic town, the perfect place to enjoy a week spent by the seaside. It has plenty of great shops and restaurants to keep you entertained. There are endless art galleries and the famous Barbara Hepworth & Tate museums. But the best part of staying here was all the beautiful beaches and coastal walks on your doorstep. Every day of our 5 day break we visited a different beach to walk the dog. So starting with my favourite, here are the local dog friendly beaches to St Ives.
Just a disclaimer to say my trip was at the beginning of May before any seasonal dog bans on Cornwall beaches came into place. During peak summer season, many beaches in Cornwall don’t allow dogs between the hours of 10am – 6pm, I’ll clarify for each beach the restrictions.
Porthmeor Beach
This beach is tucked away on the west side of St Ives. It is a sandy beach, and has great waves so you can sit and watch the surfers from the surf school here. It is not a very long beach, so you can walk from one end to the other in around ten minutes. At one end of the beach you can climb up the headland to St Nicholas Chapel. From here you have the most beautiful views over St Ives from one side, and back over Porthmeor beach from the other side. Just look at this glistening turquoise sea. This was my favourite beach that we visited.
Porthmeor Car Park is right above the beach. It is a small pay and display car park and there is probably only space for around 30 cars. Both of our visits here were during weekdays in May, I can imagine over the summer it might be more of a struggle to get a space.
There are a few reasons this was my favourite beach during our stay:
West Greek Cafe
This cafe is at one end of the beach and serves a wide array of drinks and food. We visited twice, both times in the morning. So I enjoyed their coffee and sweet treats. My one regret from our stay is we didn’t get round to having a proper meal here! They have a fantastic looking menu of greek food like Gyros, and also a pizza menu too. This cafe has a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, the staff are super friendly, and of course – it’s dog friendly! They gave us a dog biscuit for our pup, and there are water bowls here too. Most of the seating is outside looking over the beach. It is such a great spot just to sit and people watch.
The Coastal Walk
There are many fantastic coastal walks connecting Cornwall beaches. From Porthmeor beach you can join the South West Coastal Path and go on a stunning adventure. We found a great walk on Alltrails.com, which started at the car park. It took us along the SWCP for the first half, but then became a loop through some woodland and fields and brings you back into St Ives. Alternatively you could walk along the SWCP then turn back the way you came and enjoy the stunning views of the sea the entirety of your walk.
Porthmeor beach is affected by the seasonal dog ban, so from 15th of May to the 30th September dogs aren’t allowed between 10am-6pm.
Carbis Bay
We were staying in a lovely dog-friendly lodge just a 25 minute walk from Carbis Bay beach. So there was no need to worry about parking, though there was a car park here for anyone who drove. I visited Carbis Bay at 9AM to walk my dog, and it was so serene and peaceful. It is set back within a cove, so the sea was peaceful and there was hardly anyone there. Again it is quite a small beach, so you can walk from one end to the other in about ten minutes.
There is a cafe on this beach too, called ‘The Deli.’ I enjoyed a delicious coffee and sausage sandwich here, and they also had an array of fresh pastries too. Of course, it was dog friendly though we chose to sit outside with a view over the beach. You might notice a theme that the presence and quality of a cafe plays a large part in my ranking of dog friendly beaches around St Ives.
Carbis Bay is affected by the seasonal dog ban, so from 15th of May to the 30th September dogs aren’t allowed between 10am-6pm.
Gwithian Beach
Gwithian sands is a fantastic beach for dog walkers, because it is just so huge. We visited at midday on a Monday. Although it wasn’t a hot day, there were some families enjoying the beach but just walk five minutes and you’ll feel like you’ve got a whole beach to yourselves. This would be great for people with reactive or nervous dogs, as you can still find plenty of space to let them off the lead if you wish.
Gwithian beach is officially about 1.7kms long (thanks google), but it adjoins with Hayle beach so appears much longer. We walked the dog for about 45 minutes along the beach before turning around. There is a large pay and display car park at the beach, and from here it is a five minute walk down to the beach. There isn’t a cafe on the beach, but there is one adjacent to the car park. We visited the Sunset Surf cafe for a cup of tea and cornish pasty after our beach walk.
Gwithian beach is only affected by the seasonal dog ban from 1st July – 31st August. Dogs can’t be on the beach between 10am – 6pm during these peak months.
Hayle Beach
As I mentioned, Hayle Beach adjoins Gwithian sands so feels just as expansive. Again, a fantastic beach for letting your dog have a run around off the lead as there is so much space. At one end of Hayle beach fresh water flows down to the sea, so the dog was able to have a good splash around and not smell salty afterwards. The cafe at Hayle beach is called the Cove Cafe, and you have to climb some steep steps up a cliff face to access it. It has a large deck with fantastic views of the beach, and plenty of inside seating too. It was dog friendly – always a bonus.
The car park we used for Hayle was Harveys Towans car park. Although it was a a large car park with plenty of space, it wasn’t a good car park for a couple of reasons. The first being there were no bins at all, which is very inconvenient when bringing your dog waste back from the beach. Secondly, it doesn’t have a pay and display machine, you have to download an app and pay via there. Which always seems to be the case when you have terrible signal and it takes forever!
Hayle beach is only affected by the seasonal dog ban from 1st July – 31st August. Dogs can’t be on the beach between 10am – 6pm during these peak months.
Conclusion
There are so many fantastic Cornwall beaches, you will be able to find one to suit your tastes near St Ives. Whether you want the easiest parking (Gwithian), the most space for your dog to run around (Hayle), or the best cafe (Porthmeor). May is the perfect time to visit some Cornwall beaches with your dog, as the weather is great and it is before the tourists descend and seasonal dog bans come into play. However you can still of course enjoy these beautiful beaches in the morning and evening with your dog during peak periods.
