Walking St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly
Between our jaunts to the other inhabited Scilly Isles on our Calypso boat tour and glass bottomed boat trip, we had a couple of days to explore St Mary’s, the island where we were staying on our family holiday in the Isles of Scilly.
press trip*
The biggest and most populated of the five Isles of Scilly, it’s still only around 6 square miles with a population of 1,800 (the Isle of Wight is 150 square miles, by comparison) – which means it’s still far from busy, although with plenty to explore.
And armed with a map and a couple of treasure trails, courtesy of Tregarthen’s Hotel (where we were staying on a review visit), we spent two days checking out the beaches, clifftop walks, and small towns.
Read my complete guide to the Isles of Scilly with kids here
Depending how fast you go, you can walk the whole way around the island in five to seven hours (or cycle, if you’re happy with hills). With a three-year-old, this was never going to be likely, although I reckon we managed to cover over half – not too shabby.
There are also five suggested walking routes on a leaflet we picked up in the tourist office lasting from one hour to around two and a half hours.
You could see The Garrison in the far west, head right over to ancient burial chambers in the east and north or discover the vineyard of Holy Vale in the centre.
There’s also the Carreg Dhu sunken quarry garden with its subtropical plants, which unfortunately we managed to miss on both days that we set out to explore St Mary’s.
Our first, rather rainy day took us around Hugh Town to Porthcressa Beach as well as a quick glimpse of the quay and over to Old Town, with its lovely church.
Our second longer wander retraced a few of our steps around Peninnis Head over to Old Town and along the cliff path towards Giant’s Castle and some teetering rocks.
Parts of the cliff path are manageable with a buggy but in a lot of places, it’s simply too narrow. If you’ve got a baby, you’re much better with a carrier – as Minnie was old enough to walk a lot of the way, she scrambled along solo as I hoisted the buggy over some of the trickier bits.
We also spotted tiny rocky coves, crossed the edge of the airport runway, found a good spot to fly a kite and marvelled at the carpet of purple and yellow flowers on this windswept spot.
As it took a bit longer to walk than we’d thought (and the bits where nothing’s marked on the map really do have nothing there!), we ditched our original plan to see some of the burial chambers and headed inland at Porth Hellick.
Here there’s a nature trail under the trees, with hides for birdwatchers and a helpful wooden path for me to push the buggy. It leads up to Holy Vale, but we detoured towards Normandy and over to the east coast for lunch at Carn Vean tea garden.
Then back through the centre of the island for some beach time for Minnie, who had had quite enough of walking or being pushed by this stage.
Fortunately there are lots of beaches on St Mary’s to choose from, starting with Porthloo beach before an unintentional detour took us past a duckpond, and back round to pretty Porthmellon beach.
From here, only slightly footsore, we were minutes from Town beach, the quayside and our hotel for a very well-deserved drink and sit down.
Although we had a great day out exploring, I slightly regretted not having a golf buggy for parts of it as we kept running out of time to see places like Pelistry Bay, Juliet’s Garden restaurant or the Carreg Dhu garden.
But if we had done that, we wouldn’t have been able to explore all the coast path though… Evidently, just one more reason why I need to arrange a return visit.
For more ideas of things to do on the islands, check out my top things to do with kids, as well as walking St Mary’s Isles of Scilly
PIN FOR LATER: WALKING ST MARY’S ISLES OF SCILLY
Disclosure: My trip to the islands was courtesy of Tregarthen’s Hotel and Isles of Scilly Travel. All opinions and ability to get lost while holding a map are my own.
Images copyright MummyTravels
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Well done on carrying the buggy! Know what that’s like. Minnie did really well with all the walking. What a fabulous island to explore! It looks beautiful. Shame you didn’t get to see all of it but there always another time…after all, taking on too much with a toddler can be disastrous. #countrykids xxx
It’s always a bit hard to tell if she’ll walk for hours or insist on the buggy these days – she did really well with this and I doubt we could have fitted much more in. It was so gorgeous to explore too.
Walking around the island sounds like a great way to spend two days exploring. Great pictures. Looks like you all had a lot of fun.
Thanks – was great to be somewhere you can just head out and wander.
What a wonderful place to go for an explore, the dark and curious side of me feels slightly disappointed that you missed the burial chambers, still the route you took looks much sunnier and less blowy and those beaches are stunning. Such a great idea to take a kite too! Thank you for sharing on Country Kids.
Same here! But I think cliffs and beaches would appeal more to a three-year-old – so lovely just to head out and walk as well.
I’ve always fancied a trip to the Scilly Isles, I worked with someone who went every year and raved about it.
I can imagine going back again and again once you’ve discovered them. Would already love to myself, such a special place.
Oooohh this is somewhere I’ve always fancied going but not yet been. It looks beautiful. A great place to get lost 🙂
You should – it’s such a gorgeous place.
Great tips and it looks gorgeous! So impressed you did it with a buggy!! #CountryKids
Thanks! Bits would definitely have been easier without the buggy – but I know I’d have ended up doing some carrying as well…
it looks wonderful! and it’s so remote:) #monday escapes
It was so gorgeous – I absolutely loved the islands.
The Scilly Isles are without doubt my all time favourite place in the country! So beautiful! Thanks for sharing #MondayEscapes
They are amazing aren’t they – so beautiful and such a great atmosphere.
I went on a day trip to the Scilly Isles from Penzance a few years ago and would love to go back and stay longer. I’ve already chosen the campsite we’ll stay at (one day). #Mondayescapes
There’s a lovely campsite on Bryher, although I think anywhere would be gorgeous – absolutely loved the islands.
I’m so impressed you managed to do all this with a three year-old! The Isles of Scilly look beautiful. I’ve never been – must change that.
Thanks! 🙂 There were some buggy friendly bits and some carrying involved. I seem to work on the basis we’ll try things and then slightly wing it. So far, so good. And the islands are wonderful, do go if you can.
I love the idea of a ‘treasure’ trail. What a great way to explore the island… It does look so beautiful. Love the idea of 1,800 inhabitants… it sounds idyllic really. The water looks so blue! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes
All the islands are so beautiful – and I’m discovering my daughter will do all kinds of things if she thinks it’s a game.
That’s such a nice walking-tour. I’v recently fallen in love with walking tours, though my feet really hurt by the end of the day. 😉 #MondayEscapes
They are such a lovely way to explore properly – although I agree about the feet 🙂
What a joy to have a 3 year old to discover the world with! It’s a long time since I had that pleasure. Something about the Scilly’s isn’t there? A magic I’ve always wanted to touch but it’s far from my corner of England.
It is wonderful seeing it through her eyes (although walking usually entails some carrying as well). The Scillies really are special, I wish I was closer too but somewhere I know I’ll go back to.