Pedn Olva, St Ives: A Cornish Hotel Stay Where the View Becomes the Destination

A Cornish Hotel Stay Where the Room Is the Attraction

There are rooms you pay to stay in and there are reasons why people want or need to temporarily hire a place in which to sleep. Which is an overly simplistic way of describing a vast industry that offers everything from tiny sleeping pods to large luxury suites. If we ignore work-related hotel-stays, then most visits are made by tourists of some sort who have booked a place at some location they want to explore or enjoy. It is not often that the room itself represents a yearned-for destination.

Such were my thoughts recently as I lay snug and warm between luxury cotton sheets looking out at giant waves crashing on rocks just a few feet away—and beyond to a famous old granite quay protecting a fleet of fishing boats, a lighthouse and a raging ocean.

View from my room at the Pedn Olva

Storm Watching in Style: A Rare Ocean-View Hotel Room

I felt wonderfully safe and snug, despite the fact that the wall-to-ceiling windows of the room were occasionally being lashed by salt spray. This was when the thought occurred to me that there are very few hotel rooms in the world where I’d be happy to simply lie in bed looking at the view for hours on end.

Don’t get me wrong. The hotel where I was staying during the recent Storm Bram is situated in one of the most desirable locations anywhere in the UK—I would have been quite happy to get out of bed, put on waterproofs and go striding off into lovely old St Ives. And, indeed, I did just that when the mood eventually overtook me. But why not tarry a while? Why not simply enjoy being in the sort of room that gives you the thrill of the ocean without you having to endure the dreaded horrors of mal-de-mare?

Pedn Olva room view

Pedn Olva Hotel, St Ives: A Unique Clifftop Stay

Who needs to be on a boat when you’ve got St Austell Brewery’s wonderfully refurbished Pedn Olva, perched on the rocks above Porthminster Beach, right next to St Ives? It is one of the few places I know where you can enjoy the excitement of a full-on maritime experience without having to leave terra-firma. Yes, there are other hostelries where you can watch seals bobbing about, but not many. There are other hotel rooms which give you views of fishermen hauling lobster pots—but they are few in number and hardly any are quite as close to the action.

For this reason alone I like to stay at Pedn Olva, on the edge of St Ives. Indeed, I have visited on several previous occasions, but having recently enjoyed the delights of St Austell’s excellent Royal Castle at Dartmouth (as described in these pages) I thought it rude not to pay a similar visit to one of the brewery’s premier Cornish establishments which has recently undergone a similar refurbishment.

Indeed, there are three hostelries which have been given the St Austell revamp treatment this year—and Hesp Out West will be visiting the third, the wonderful Wellington at Boscastle, in January.

One of the rooms at Pedn Olva

St Austell Brewery’s Refurbishment: Inside the New Look Pedn Olva

The Pedn Olva—one of St Austell Brewery’s 45 managed pubs across the South West—now features reconfigured layouts, expansive new terraces and a reimagined interior design, all inspired by the area’s coastal surroundings.

At the heart of this establishment—officially described as a pub with rooms—is a new 10-metre bar, crowned by a copper sculpture from local artist Shelley Anderson, which tips a wink to West Cornwall’s industrial past. The reconfigured layout also includes snug areas, a spacious dining room, and enhanced outdoor terraces—including a rooftop deck offering panoramic sea views.

Bar restaurant at Pedn Olva

A St Austell spokesman told me:
“Natural materials, including granite, wood, and copper, have been used throughout, while turquoise tiling and custom carpets evoke the textures and colours of the Cornish coastline. As a venue rooted in a town synonymous with art, the interiors showcase more than 25 pieces of original, commissioned and bespoke artwork, including sculpture and stained glass, many by Cornish artists and sourced from local galleries—along with originals from renowned St Ives painters including William Black and Victor Bramley.”

Bedrooms With Sea Views at Pedn Olva

All 27 bedrooms have been fully refurbished, each offering sea views and reflecting that fact with their coastal-inspired décor.

Another day another view: St Ives in different light

Food & Drink: Local Seafood and Cornish Classics

Food at the Pedn Olva is served throughout the day, from breakfast to dinner, and the new menu features dishes such as grilled half-shell scallops, lobster butter fries, and charred watermelon salad, alongside Cornish classics like fish and chips, cream teas, and daily catch specials.

“All our dishes champion the finest local produce, including seafood sourced from long-standing supplier Matthew Stevens, based just ten minutes away.” I was told.

Why Pedn Olva Remains One of Cornwall’s Best Coastal Hotels

So… yes, I love the Pedn Olva and have done for years. It always was one of my favourite places to stay in Cornwall—quite simply because of what I said at this beginning of this article. Location, location, location… That is one of the most often quoted phrases in the hospitality industry, and this place has it not in bucketfuls, but in an endless series of ocean waves. You don’t even have to get out of bed to enjoy its unique maritime vibe.

And I’ll say one other thing about staying at a St Austell Brewery owned establishment. The staff are absolutely superb. They really are friendly and they go the extra mile. That alone makes their properties always worth a second look—and I for one shall be staying at the Pedn Olva again in future. Warmth of hospitality and a view second to none—a formula that cannot really be beaten.

Room Rates

Rooms start from: £145 per night (bed and breakfast), based on two sharing. Pedn Olva Hotel (St Austell) Brewery – https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/hotels/pedn-olva

Pedna Olva across the bay above the boats

St Ives at Christmas

Christmas in St Ives, Cornish festive traditions, things to do in St Ives in December

Nowadays Mousehole tends to grab the festive headlines in far west Cornwall, thanks to its now famous harbour lights. And a worthy winner it is too when it comes to who does best at Christmas down in West Penwith. But St Ives comes a very close runner-up for several reasons…

The town also pulls out a great many stops when it comes to festive illumination. The place literally glows with Christmas cheer and, just like Mousehole, all the many lights are reflected by the harbour waters, as long as the tide is in.

But the town also has a great deal more to offer when it comes to Christmas shopping opportunities and to the much wider variety of watering holes that stay open at this time of year. I was quite happy dining up at the Pedn Olva in a restaurant looking out over the brightly lit nocturnal scene, but could have gone to any of several dozen good eateries.

However, there’s another reason I like to visit St Ives in December. Having written a great many newspaper articles about how the greater West Country has celebrated Christmas down the centuries, I began to realise that this once remote fishing village really did go to town when it came to celebrating the midwinter festival.

Several old documents I managed to unearth over the years referred to the revelries of St Ives in December. In 1865 a diarist called Robert Hunt penned a work entitled Popular Romances of the West of England; or, The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall—and in it he noted:
“We doubt if there is a spot in 'merrie England' where Christmas receives so hearty a welcome, and is 'made so much of,' as in the old-fashioned 'antient borough of beloved St Ives.’

“The Christmas market is not a mean affair at St Ives; if the butchers cannot boast of many prize oxen or 'South Downs,' they generally manage to make the best of their 'home-raised' and well-fed cattle, and the stalls are 'titivated off' nicely too.”

But it was the St Ives Christmas “guise dancing” which brought the town some notoriety. This particular form of jollity used to be enjoyed throughout the 12-days of Christmas. Mr Hunt described it thus…

“Guise-dancing has found a last retreat at St Ives. This is the only town in the country where the old Cornish Christmas revelry is kept up with spirit.

“Guise-dancing at St Ives is no more nor less than a pantomimic representation or bal-masque on an extensive scale, the performers outnumbering the audience, who in this case take their stand at the corners of the streets, which are but badly lighted with gas, and rendered still more dismal by the closing of the tradesmen's shops after sunset during this season, on account of the noise and uproar occasioned. The town being literally given up to a lawless mob, who go about yelling and hooting in an unearthly manner—a tone between a screech and a howl, so as to render their voices as undistinguishable as their buffoon-looking dresses.”

Apparently fancy costumes and the high falsetto voices were all part of the idea that you could go about during the 12-days of Christmas, immune to law-breaking and anarchy, simply because you would not be recognised.

The ancient tradition of guise-dancing disappeared from the Cornish port sometime between the two world wars—which I guess may have been a good thing.

More sad was the disappearance of the old St Ives custom which saw all the town’s children repairing on Christmas Day to Porthminster Beach where they’d play games and dance.