St Just in Roseland church
A 13th-century church in a sub-tropical garden on a tidal creek, free to enter and worth it for the setting alone.
Raimond Spekking — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Benjamin Smith — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Benjamin Smith — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Benjamin Smith — CC BY-SA 4.0
The quickest way into the Roseland is a ferry hauled across the River Fal on iron chains, in service since 1888, which carries your car over in five to seven minutes for £8 each way, or £12 for a day return. The moment you roll off on the far bank the tempo of Cornwall changes: the main roads vanish, and what remains is a web of single-track lanes between high hedges, silent tidal creeks and villages of a few dozen houses. This is not a sight you buy a ticket for. It is a protected stretch of coast and farmland to be driven slowly and walked more slowly still. St Mawes, the largest village, is the natural starting point, with its waterfront and its squat clover-leaf castle, built for Henry VIII between 1540 and 1542 around a round central keep with three bastions (English Heritage, roughly £8-9 for adults, open daily 10am-5pm in season and on shorter hours in winter). Two and a half kilometres north stands St Just in Roseland, a 13th-century church set in a sub-tropical garden that tumbles down to a tidal creek. Entry is free and it is, frankly, the finest thing on the whole peninsula even for people with no interest in churches, because the setting is the point rather than the building. At the southern tip is St Anthony Head, with a lighthouse first lit in 1835, old gun batteries and an open view across the mouth of Falmouth harbour. The car park there is National Trust: a daily charge for visitors, free for members, and the machine prefers coins or the parking app signed beside it. For families the beaches are the real argument for coming. Pendower and Carne join into one long strip of sand at low tide and suit small children; Towan is a smaller cove reached from the Porth Farm car park. There are no queues and no timed slots, but do not expect much in the way of facilities either. Pushchairs work along the St Mawes waterfront and at the church, not on the earthen coast paths. Cafés are few and many close from November to March, and the winter light is gone soon after half past four, so this is at heart a May-to-September outing. Getting there: from Truro it is about a 20-minute drive to the King Harry Ferry at Feock, a few minutes across, then a quarter of an hour on to St Mawes. The ferry runs all year, every 20 minutes, from 7am until about half past nine at night (9am start on Sundays and bank holidays). Without a car the alternative is the passenger ferry from Falmouth to St Mawes (20 minutes, £11 single or £16.50 return for an adult, 10 per cent off online), but that delivers you to the village and castle only. There is no railway and buses are sparse. Give it a full day with a hire car, or settle for St Mawes alone if you have none.
A 13th-century church in a sub-tropical garden on a tidal creek, free to enter and worth it for the setting alone.
A lighthouse first lit in 1835, old gun batteries and a sweeping view over the mouth of Falmouth; paid parking, free for National Trust members.
A chain ferry running since 1888, crossing the Fal in minutes every 20 minutes, paid by card or cash on board.
Roseland Peninsula, near St Mawes, Truro TR2
Only partly. The passenger ferry from Falmouth lands you in St Mawes in 20 minutes (£16.50 return), and from there the castle is a short walk and St Just church a half-hour stroll. The number 50 bus from Truro does reach St Mawes via Probus, Tregony and Portscatho, but only about ten times a day. The beaches and St Anthony Head still need a car.
In summer, yes, provided the plan is a long play on Carne or Pendower beach rather than a tour of sights. There are no queues or timed entries, but also no playgrounds and few facilities, and the narrow lanes make for slow driving. In winter the honest answer is no: short days and closed cafés.