Short answer: Walk the coast path from Lelant to St Ives — around four miles past Porthkidney and Carbis Bay — and let the branch-line train do the return leg. It's the best walk-and-ride combination in Cornwall.
The one-way trick
The St Ives Bay branch line shadows this entire walk, which unlocks the perfect format: walk one way, train back. No retracing, no second car, and the five-minute ride along the sands is a highlight in itself. Park at St Erth or at the Lelant end, and build the day around a one-way ticket.
The route, stop by stop
- Lelant. The walk proper starts by St Uny Church above the estuary mouth — worth two minutes before you set off. The Old Forge in the village is the pre-walk coffee if you've arrived unfed.
- Porthkidney Sands. The path crosses the golf links and runs above a vast, strangely empty beach — the quietest big sand in the bay, because it has no road, no car park and no café. That's the appeal. Drop down onto it if the tide's out; just remember whatever you descend, you re-ascend.
- Hawke's Point to Carbis Bay. The wooded, up-and-down middle miles with the bay opening ahead — the most demanding stretch, though never mountaineering.
- Carbis Bay. The natural halfway pause: a sheltered, café-served beach where the underpowered can honourably retire — Carbis Bay has its own station, so the train rescue works from here too.
- Into St Ives. The final stretch rounds Porthminster Point and delivers you past Porthminster Beach Café straight onto the harbour front — as good an arrival as any walk in Cornwall offers.
Honest notes
- Effort: around four miles with real ups and downs in the middle — comfortable for regular walkers, a proper outing for occasional ones. Allow two to two-and-a-half unhurried hours plus stops.
- Wheels: this is not a pushchair route — steps, roots and narrow sections. The pram version of this day is simply the train both ways, which is no consolation prize.
- Dogs: fine on the path; the beaches below carry their own seasonal rules, so read the signs where you drop down.
- Trains: the branch line runs frequently but check the day's times before relying on the last one back.
Finish properly
You arrive in St Ives having earned it — our early St Ives guide and the full town guide cover the eating end. Walking it in reverse (St Ives → Lelant) works too; the views mostly face the way described here.
See the full Hayle guide, filtered by who's with you.
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