Places in Cornwall to have an Autumn Camera Date
The tourists are gone — time for the locals to play
Contrary to popular belief, Cornwall does not close for the autumn and winter months. For those of us who live here, autumn can be the best time of year although some prefer early spring before the tourists arrive.
It remains warm for some time, and there is plenty to see and do as the year grows old. As Christmas approaches, it can get quite magical. Here then are my suggestions for things to do on each of the autumn months in Cornwall.
September
Autumn begins on the 21st September and so that means for three weeks of that month, it is still summer. And what do we do in the summer? We visit a beach!
The weather is still good enough to need sun cream and the sea still warm enough if you’re brave enough to go for a swim. On the plus side, the jellyfish should have gone by now.
If you head down the cost to Cornwall’s coastal resorts like St. Ives, boat trips are still running on good weather days. St. Ives is great in September. There will be crowds, but not the heaving numbers of people you might see just a few weeks earlier.
This may be your ideal time to explore the coast roads too. If you’re going to St. Ives, I recommend taking the north coast road to St Just and following the road to Cape Cornwall and onto Land’s End.
There is a high chance you will see some really good weather.
October
Your chances of having a good beach day for sunbathing are increasingly slim. That’s not to say the beaches are closed, because they’re not. We love visiting in autumn and winter.
It is, however, time to head inland a bit.
Cornwall might look like a sub-tropical paradise from the outside. Who am I kidding?! It is! But we also have some lovely woodlands and open spaces. Some good places to see autumnal landscapes in Cornwall include Bodmin Moor and Cardinham Woods in the east, and Tehidy Woods in the west.
You don’t need to travel far though. I sometimes like walking along the River Fal near Devoran. It’s a good place to see some wildlife.
November
Two major events in November help me begin to feel Christmassy. For Americans, the holiday season begins after Thanksgiving. In the UK, things start a shade earlier.
We go to a fireworks display most years. The only time I took my camera was 2018. Mixed success but I was pleased considering I’d had the camera a few months and hadn’t yet got off priority modes.
The second is the annual opening of the Christmas Markets. Most major towns and cities have them now and the bigger the town or city, the bigger and more extravagant the market, with a few exceptions.
In Cornwall, there is no grander opening to the Christmas season than City of Lights!
Every year, the schools put together large lanterns, some of them incredible works of art and parade from Lemon Street to Boscowan Street and around to Lemon Quay. Since I’ve moved down here, the evenings have opened up with more stuff going on such as carol singing and street food markets.
For general stuff to do in the autumn, November is a nice time to walk along the riverways of Cornwall. Low tide or high tide, there are few things more atmospheric than a bank of fog.
