Beaches near St Ives

Map featuring St Ives beaches. Click on pins to view beach details

Looking for a beach near me? The Cornwall Beaches guide has 12 listed in and close to St Ives to choose from. We've put the beaches in order of nearest first, but none are more than a few miles from St Ives.

  • The oddly named Lambeth Walk beach is easily overlooked, despite being almost in the town centre of St Ives. Part of the reason is it doesn't really exist at high tide. At low tide things are different - the beach joins up with the harbour beach. On a big low tide you can walk around to…

  • Porthmeor is arguably St Ives' premier beach and as such one of Cornwall's finest.Blending natural beauty with artistic heritage, Porthmeor beach consists of a long stretch of golden sand bookmarked by rugged headlands. To one end, the chapel topped "Island" - which isn't an island at all. To the other the craggy cliffs of Man's…

  • Is it a harbour? Is it a beach? Well actually it’s both. Whilst you might imagine a grimy patch of muddy sand down a flight of steps you could not be further from the truth. St Ives Harbour beach shares the same beautiful, golden sand and azure waters as the town’s other main beaches. The…

  • If you arrive in St Ives by train (or bus for that matter) one of the first sights you will be greeted by is the crescent of golden sand that is Porthminster beach. Barely a minutes walk away from the train station this is without doubt one of Cornwall's finest beaches.The beach is backed by…

  • The remains of Wheal Dream tin mine overlook this quiet, sandy beach. Situated between the harbour and Porthgwidden beach, Bamaluz often goes unnoticed by the majority of visitors. The beach itself is fairly sheltered from all but an onshore breeze but the high walls can also block out some of the sun. At high tide the…

  • Porthgwidden is often overlooked in the St Ives beaches stakes. Smaller than the others it does benefit from being more sheltered. It sits in the lee of the Island which blocks out most of the predominant winds and makes Porthgwidden a veritable sun trap. Despite the lack of lifeguards there are plenty of other facilities including…

  • Clodgy Point beach is located just around the point (Man’s Head) from Porthmeor beach. It is a fairly rugged affair with a mix of boulders and rocks strewn across a sweeping bay that reaches over to Clodgy Point. It is possibly a little more sheltered than Porthmeor from the force of the sea but is…

  • Located less than a mile out of St Ives is Carbis Bay. It is a wide sandy beach with good facilities making it particularly popular with families. It is also fairly sheltered both from the wind and the waves owing to its position in the lee of large, tree covered cliffs.In times gone by the…

  • Porthkidney Sands stretch from the mouth of the River Hayle in Lelant to Hawk’s Point in Carbis Bay. The beach is around a mile long and at low tide the sea goes out a long way leaving a vast expanse of usually almost deserted sand. The fact that one can barely discern the river mouth…

  • Part of Hayle's famous "three miles of golden sand" this wide, sandy beach stretches from just beyond the rivermouth to Mexico Towans.  As the name suggests it is backed by (low) cliffs, which provide some shelter from the breeze. Why they are referred to as Black cliffs is anyone's guess - mine is that they are…

  • The inexplicably named Mexico Towans lies somewhere near the middle of Hayle's famous "3 miles of golden sand". This particular section is backed by high sand dunes, most of which are covered in thick marram grass. There are however a couple of access points, both of which involve a considerable slog back up the sand on…

  • This expanse of beach is what makes up a large part of Hayle's '3 miles of golden sand'. At low tide all the Hayle beaches join up to provide an impressive stretch of sand popular with sand yachts and kite buggies. Despite being directly in front of a substantial caravan the beach is so vast…