Beach champion: Hayle Towans

Sam Beverley in our Owner Services team shares her favourite things about these West Cornwall towans  

This stretch of coast is an unsung Cornish gem. On a calm, sunny day it looks and feels tropical but somehow remains unspoilt.

It’s the beginning of Hayle’s ‘Three Mile Beach’ and joins with Gwithian and Godrevy at low tide. And it’s so vast, you feel like you have the beach to yourself. Sometimes when I’m here, I actually do.

Sam and family on Hayle Towans

Hayle days

Our days here are my partner surfing and my one-year-old playing in – and sometimes trying to eat (!) – the sand.

For me, the ideal day here is back-to-back sea swims followed by a picnic in the dunes.

The estuary is a pretty calm place for a swim or you can have fun in the waves along the beach, when the conditions are right. I normally swim in the estuary with our little boy, where there’s shallow water – perfect for paddling, dipping and floating. Tucked behind the dunes, it’s often sheltered from the wind too.

For picnic supplies and refreshments, the mobile Kabyn Café right on the beach at Gwithian is great for a beach lunch (the dahl and tagines are particularly good), or coffee and cake, after a long walk. And you can’t go wrong with a Philps pasty for that picnic in the dunes.

After the beach, I’d visit the lovely, cobbled streets of St Ives for an afternoon of shopping and wandering around Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Hayle and its towans

Walk, surf and explore with us as we tap into one of Cornwall’s better-kept beach secrets.

Sea more

Found in the sands

We speak to coffee makers and nature guides as we say hello to Hayle’s beach community.

Image credit: Nik Waites, The Wild Within

Sea more

YOUR BEACH. FOUND

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