A Summer in the U.K. Countryside Beach Town St. Ives

A weeklong stay in the English countryside conjures up visions of drinking a pint next to a warm hearth, or a stroll along a windswept heath.

Yet here, in the town of St. Ives, nestled into the steep Cornish cliffs and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, my children were riding the waves in wet suits each morning, while I practiced yoga in a converted theater, sounds of the crashing swells drifting through the open windows. A branch of the Tate Museum stood so close to the beach that it cast a shadow on the sunbathers.

Dating from the Middle Ages, St. Ives is a labyrinth of cobbled alleyways lined with 19th-century stone fishermen cottages, working artist studios and galleries and a bevy of shops selling Cornish pasties and ice cream.

The town was once the domain of fishermen and tin and copper miners, but in 1877 the railroad arrived, bringing visitors, and particularly artists, who were drawn to its seascape, the craggy green nature walks and the famously clear light. Next year will be the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the railroad, as well as the 100th anniversary of Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse,” which was inspired by the Godrevy Lighthouse in St. Ives Bay, where she spent her summers as a child.

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