St. Ives, Cornwall

Tourist Information and Travel Guide

ABOVE: Porthminster Beach at the Cornish art colony of St. Ives.

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
The seven wives had seven sacks,
The seven sacks had seven cats,
The seven cats had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, wives--
How many were going to St. Ives?

Although foreigners may know St. Ives* primarily for its role in a riddle, the British have long regarded the Cornish fishing town as England's leading art colony. St. Ives has attracted painters, sculptors, potters, and weavers since the Great Western Railway made Cornwall accessible to Londoners in the late 19th Century. Today, the village has its own branch of London's Tate Gallery--a fact that attests to the influence and popularity of the various "St. Ives Schools" over the years.

Artists and art fanciers aren't the only people who enjoy St. Ives. The town has long been a popular seaside resort, thanks to wide sandy beaches, a picturesque harbor, and stone cottages built by earlier generations of tin miners and fishermen. St. Ives is also a good overnight stopping-place for hikers on the Cornwall Coastal Path.

If you're a typical foreign visitor, you'll prefer to stay in the town itself. However, nearby Carbis Bay (a sheltered cove to the southeast) may be worth considering if you're looking for a place where you and the kids can lounge on the beach for a few days.

TIP: If you dislike crowds and prefer sightseeing to sunbathing, visit St. Ives and other Cornish towns outside the peak tourist months of July and August.

Tourist information

Historic Town of St. Ives
Click the "Enter" button to explore St. Ives via the town's official (and interesting) Web site.

St. Ives: The Jewel of the South West
Take a virtual tour, plan your sightseeing, look up restaurants, and more with St. Ives Holidays.

St. Ives
A short introduction from the Cornish ConneXions tourist section.

St. Ives, Cornwall, England
A short article with a great selection of photos, from Cornish Light.

Events

St. Ives September Festival
Art, literature, poetry, jazz, rock, folk, and world music are on this festival's program each year.

Excursions

Pixie Tours
Don't have a car? Pixie Tours offers half- and full-day excursions to caves, coves, gardens, and other attractions in wheelchair-accessible minibuses.

Transportation to St. Ives

National Rail Enquiries
If you're coming from London, enter "Paddington" as your station of origin when using the journey planner.

Tips on traveling in Britain

If you plan to drive in the United Kingdom, read my articles on driving in Europe and car rentals: when to rent, when to lease. For train travel, consider a rail pass from our partner, Rail Europe. (You can even get "Rail n' Drive" passes that combine rail travel with a rental car.)

* The St. Ives of the riddle is another village of St. Ives, in Cambridgeshire. But foreigners can't be expected to know that. :-) As for the solution to the puzzle, it's easy: The author was going toward St. Ives when he met the man, cats, and wives. It's therefore likely that the latter were headed in the opposite direction, making the correct answer "none."

Continued on page 2

Thanks to Nic Drew of  Cornish ConneXions for suggesting this article.

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