Cornwall · Linear (one way)

Hayle to St Ives by the coast path

A one-way South West Coast Path walk round St Ives Bay by Carbis Bay, with a train back option.

Official trail page (opens in new tab)Visit Cornwall: Walking the coast from St Ives

Take this walk offline

Near the start, along the way and at the finish

Carbis Bay, St Ives & West Penwith
Near the start: Carbis Bay (about 3.4 km away)Photo: Andy F, CC BY 3.0
Porthmeor Beach, St Ives & West Penwith
Near the finish: Porthmeor Beach (under 1 km away)Photo: DS Pugh, CC BY-SA 2.0
Porthminster Beach, St Ives & West Penwith
Porthminster Beach (about 4.7 km from the start)Photo: ArildV, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fishing boats resting on the sand in St Ives harbour at low tide
St Ives & West Penwith (about 5.1 km from the start)Photo: ArildV, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photos of named places from our guides closest to each point of the walk, with the straight-line distance. They show the area, not the path itself: follow the waymarks and the official page.

The route

A one-way walk along St Ives Bay from Hayle to St Ives on the South West Coast Path. Visit Cornwall lists it as just over 6 miles and notes trains between St Ives and Carbis Bay if you want to shorten it.

The interactive map needs JavaScript. The start and finish are listed below.

Along the way

  1. Start: Hayle
  2. Finish: St Ives

The line is drawn from OpenStreetMap data and simplified to 319 points. It can differ from what is on the ground: waymarks and the official page take priority.

Route and map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), saved 2026-10-25. Spotted a mistake? Fix the map.

Download GPX Official trail page (opens in new tab)

The GPX file holds the route as a track and the start, finish and waypoints, for use in a walking or hiking app. It is a planning aid, not a navigation guarantee.

Before you go

Safety and access notes come from official pages. Conditions change, so read the linked page for the day you walk.

Getting there

  • Nearest station or stop to the start in our dataHayle (station), about 0.1 km in a straight line.
  • Nearest to the finishSt Ives (station), about 0.9 km in a straight line.
  • Visit Cornwall says trains run from St Ives to Carbis Bay, and that you can change at St Erth for Lelant. Source (opens in new tab)

Straight-line distances from our station list, not walking distances. Check timetables and the route to the start before you travel. Getting between regions

Step-free and pushchair access

The official page does not say whether this route is step-free or suitable for pushchairs, so we do not either. Check the official page (opens in new tab) or ask the site.

Safety

How these figures were worked out

  • Distance: route length measured from OpenStreetMap geometry. The official page gives no distance. It is a straight-segment sum along mapped paths, so it can differ from a waymarked figure.
  • Grade: our rule, because the official page gives no grade. Easy: up to 8 km and up to 150 m of ascent. Hard: over 16 km or over 600 m of ascent. Moderate: everything else. No ascent figure is available for this walk, so the rule used distance only and the real grade may be higher.
  • Time: only shown when an official page states it.

Sources

  1. Visit Cornwall: Walking the coast from St Ives (opens in new tab). Hayle to St Ives listed as 6.1 miles (OSM line measures 11.06 km, so the build uses the OSM length); trains to Carbis Bay. Checked on 2026-10-25.
  2. Visit Cornwall: The South West Coast Path (opens in new tab). general coast path safety advice. Checked on 2026-10-25.
  3. OpenStreetMap relation 2374590 (South West Coast Path section 20) (opens in new tab). route geometry (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; measured 11.06 km. Checked on 2026-10-25.
  4. OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in new tab) (ODbL). Route geometry. Saved 2026-10-25.

More walks in Cornwall

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