Great British getaways: Discovering that galleries and a castle island give the Cornish seaside town of Penzance year-round appeal

It is said the final stretch of railway to Penzance was completed only after a local landowner’s request that trains should not operate during the ‘cocktail hour’.

Luckily, a deal was struck, and in 1852 the first Truro service began, connecting to Plymouth seven years later when Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge across the Tamar between Devon and Cornwall opened.

The ‘Cornish Riviera’, as Great Western Railway quickly dubbed it, was up and running. Cornish Riviera Expresses soon set forth trailing steam, and the county was never the same again.

Penzance, being the terminus, was naturally at the heart of it all. And it still is, with Night Riviera sleepers from London Paddington.

Penzance (population 21,000) is not, however, merely a summer destination for its beaches and the much-loved Jubilee Lido. In the autumn/winter months the town offers bracing coastal walks, cheaper hotels and cosy, welcoming inns. 

For the latter, the Admiral Benbow on Chapel Street, with its chaotic nautical paraphernalia and proud boast of ‘serving pirates, smugglers and rum since 1685’, feels the go-to spot.

There’s also the Turks Head, the Dolphin, the Dock Inn, the Navy Inn, the Yacht Inn and many more along the hilly, higgledy-piggledy lanes – in short, there’s a lot of pubs, many with live music.

Chapel Street runs down to the Isles of Scilly ferry port and houses the extraordinary Grade-I listed Egyptian House, built in 1836 with ancient Luxor-esque columns.

‘In the autumn/winter months the town offers bracing coastal walks, cheaper hotels and cosy, welcoming inns,’ says Tom Chesshyre about Penzance 

From Penzance, you can walk the 15 miles to Land’s End (seen here), reveals Tom

Exotic: Penzance’s Grade-I listed Egyptian House

Nearby you’ll find the excellent Acorn Theatre and Penlee House Gallery and Museum, home to wonderful Newlyn School of Art works by Stanhope Forbes and Lamorna Birch, as well as the important fishing port of Newlyn.

A four-mile tramp past the station takes you to St Michael’s Mount, the castle-island and inspiration of many a picture. It’s sometimes reachable across a causeway, or else by boat.

Plenty of other leisurely walks are to be had to the village of Mousehole (three miles) or Land’s End (15 miles), though you may instead be tempted to stay put and browse the bookshops, antique shops or even hit the ‘cocktail hours’ of the pubs.

WHERE TO STAY: Doubles at the delightful and stylish Chapel House hotel are from £200 (chapelhousepz.co.uk). Night Riviera from £179pp return, two sharing a cabin (gwr.com); or £91 return day-time trains. For more, see visitcornwall.com.

Tom says Penzance has many great pubs, including the Admiral Benbow (pictured). It claims to have been ‘serving pirates, smugglers and rum since 1685’