There’s no experience on Earth that matches an amazing skywatching experience.
Our favourite skywatching experiences have almost always been in West Cornwall. We’ve enjoyed countless dramatic, colourful sunrises and sunsets in this unique Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here we highlight two locations which, in our opinion, offer the most remarkable viewpoints.
Best for a Sunrise
Watching the sun come up over Mounts Bay, on the south coast, is truly spectacular. From Raginnis Hill in Mousehole you get an elevated view of the sun rising up over the Bay with the iconic St Michael’s Mount in the distance.
Best for Sunset
You could make a day of it and head North to St Ives Island, (the grassy headland between Porthmeor and Porthgwidden beaches in St Ives) for a mesmerising sunset on the same day!
St Nicholas’ Chapel sits at the high point on the island and is a great vantage point, as you get magnificent 360 degree panoramic views. It is therefore possible to occasionally view the sunset and moon rise simultaneously from here.
In October we watched the sun setting over Porthmeor beach on one side to the west, and a hunter’s super moon rising up over St Ives Bay on the other side to the East.
Best for eclipses
Over 25 years ago we were lucky enough to see something even more spectacular in a remote part of Cornwall, on the Isles of Scilly, located 30 miles off the western tip of the mainland… a total solar eclipse.
We were on St Agnes, a tiny island in the Isles of Scilly, on 11th August 1999 when we experienced the full blacking out of the sun in the late morning around 11am. It was a memory to last a lifetime.
While this event is rarely repeated (the next total eclipse to be seen in the UK will not be until December 23rd 2090), 2026 is still set be another incredible year for skywatching in West Cornwall.
This summer on August 12th around the time the sun sets, West Cornwall might be just the place to view the most significant solar eclipse (almost total with 90% covered) the UK has seen since 1999. Although we are not in the path of totality this time it will be the biggest partial eclipse we have seen for over two decades.
West Penwith with its very low levels of light pollution has been internationally recognised as one of the best places in the world to view the night sky and with any luck there will be tremendous views over the ocean from Lands End as the eclipsed sun sets between 6-7 pm on this day. It’s a date for the diary.
