St. Anthony's head lighthouse, Cornwall

St. Anthony’s head lighthouse, Cornwall

St. Anthony’s head lighthouse is located on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall. Owned by the National Trust. St Anthony’s head offers spectacular views over the Carrick Roads which on a beautiful clear day you can see views Falmouth and Pendennis castle.

Driving to St. Anthony’s head

I’m not going to lie the drive to the National Trust car park at St. Anthony’s head is a little…narrow. Even for a veteraned country lane driver like myself it was hairy in places. It probably didn’t help the fact we visited on a beautiful bank holiday weekend so, Cornwall was a lot busier than usual.

Parking as St.Anthony’s head

As mentioned there is a National Trust car park situated right on the headland. There is a machine there so you do need to pay unless you are a National Trust member or have a Blue Badge. The prices are:
£2.00 for 1 hour
£4.00 up to 4 hrs
£8.00 for the day
The car park is open from dusk to dawn, so no overnight camping. It’s also a decent size and even on a bank holiday weekend there were still spaces available.

What to do there?

There are a few options when it comes to visiting St. Anthony’s head. You could come purely for a beach day and hang out on Molunan beaches.

Or you could do the circular walk that my family and I did or you could even explore further afield and do a full on South West coastal path walk.

St Anthony Head Circular Walk

To do the stunning walk trail around St Anthony Head you should park at the National Trust car park. Near the entrance of the car park you will see a pink tipped sign that says link to coastal path, follow that sign. You will then find yourself heading down a steep path which leads to Molunan beaches.

Throughout the whole you walk you basically follow the headland around. Stopping to take in the breath taking views, take a few snaps and even go bird watching.

The trail does split off a bit down different paths however these are fun to explore. One takes you slightly closer to the lighthouse so you can take a good look (although you cannot go in.) Another path will take you to the battery observation post and bird hide.

Route details

The walk around the headland is only about 1 mile and will roughly take you 35 mins. That being said because it was such a glorious day we did stop a lot to take in the beautiful view across the Carrick Roads over towards Falmouth. There was lot of activity on the water to watch from sailing board, speed boats, jet skis and paddle boarders.

The terrain was steep in places but on the most part it was a moderate walk. That was tarmacked in places. The walk is also dog friendly making it perfect to take a furry friend.

Summary

I would highly recommend checking out this beautiful walk around St Anthony head, it’s a place I had never visited before but was blown away by.

St. Anthony’s head lighthouse, Cornwall