Blog — porthgwidden

  Following on from our previous post about the top ten things to do in Cornwall we wanted to focus in a little bit more on dear St Ives, home of the Poppy Treffry shop and some of the best, most beautiful beaches in the world! So are you heading to St Ives? Planning to visit soon? Here's our top 5 things you should do in St Ives, let us know what you would have put on your list - there's no right and wrong (apart from visiting our shop, that should always be on there!)

1. Visit the Poppy Treffry St Ives shop.

We're leading with this mainly because we can! We might be biased but other people have told us how much they love the shop. Come along and see for yourself. You'll find the entire Poppy Treffry range, pieces you won't find on our website, one offs and quirky collectables Poppy sources from time to time. And if you pop to the website you can even find a 10% voucher to use in the shop. Right here.

2. Barbara Hepworth museum.

Not far from the Poppy Treffry shop you'll find the Barbara Hepworth museum and we say definitely make time for a visit. The house and garden are home to the largest group of Hepworth's works and there is real inspiration to be found here. (The image above is from our 'St Ives Snaps' competition a few years ago, thanks to Catherine Parry for this beautiful image from the gardens.) More info here.

3. An Island walk for tea and cake.

As you can imagine no list from Team Treffry is complete without a tea and cake stop! In St Ives we recommend a walk around 'the island' from Porthmeor beach, towards Porthgwidden for tea and cake, or you could grab a lovely take away from the allotment deli on fore street to take with you. (Another St Ives Snaps entry here, our cream teas don't hang around long enough for pics! Thanks to Nicola Kriegeleder for this one)

4. Learn to draw, and much much more!

If you want a little bit of culture on your break then there are all sorts of courses to choose from whilst you're in St Ives. Our top picks are life drawing classes at the St Ives School of Painting within Porthmeor studios, inspirational and affordable. You'll also find a creative collection of courses over at Barnoon workshops, from 'drop in and draw' to 'play your guitar'. Full details here.

5. John Knill Celebrations.

Finally lucky visitors to St Ives this year (2016) might happen upon the celebrations which are carried out in memory of John Knill once every five years, making them an excellent excuse for a good old Cornish knees up! Celebrations take place on July 25th and involve dancing and a procession, and perhaps a smidgen of drink! There's a bit more info here. The last image is a gratuitous beautiful shot of St Ives boats, just to transport you to this beautiful place! (Thanks to Amy Moore for this shortlisted entry from the St Ives Snaps competition.). So that's our top 5, although we could probably have come up with a top 50 as it's pretty hard to choose. You'll just have to come and see for yourself, and we hope to see you in the Poppy Treffry shop when you do.