Attractions

Killarney Springs, at Morwenstow near Bude, has acres of family fun and entertainment.

For maximum excitement, ride the three huge water coasters, the North Ridge alpine adventure, F1 and F2 supakarts and bumper boats. Let off steam in the indoor Powerhouse, with slides, climbing ropes, frames, ballpools and soft play area for infants.

For a gentler pace head for a row on the boating lake with a choice of canoes or rowing boats, meet the animals on the Willow Creek boat ride, try the 18-hole putting green and enjoy the Cornish countryside by strolling along our nature trail.

Explore the unique Bronze Age attraction bringing the past to life. Can you find artefacts hidden in the archaeological dig – if you can there’s prizes to be won! Meet animals and find out their importance to Bronze Age people.

Fun activities and learning for children and adults, ideal for school visits and groups. Stay all day and enjoy a meal in the restaurant and browse in the gift shop.

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  Open: April to the end of October on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, 10.30am-5pm.

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Newquay Zoo won the Sustainable Tourism Award and was a finalist in the Visitor Attraction of the Year Award in the Cornwall Tourist Board 2004 Awards.

From its humble origins as a small pets corner in the early 1960s, Newquay Zoo, opened in 1969, has become one of the country's top zoos, with ground-breaking and innovative conservation programmes.

Winning 11 major awards since 1996, as well as passing the South West Tourism Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance assessment, it has proved itself to be one of the best attractions in the South West.

The zoo was privately owned from 1994 to August 2003 by Mike Thomas and Roger Martin. During this time they developed the zoo into one of the best in the country. The highlight for Mike Thomas was seeing the revolutionary partnership with St Austell College established and the development of an educational facility on land adjacent to the zoo, catering for BTEC and HND studies.

In August 2003 Newquay Zoo joined forces with Paignton Zoo and is now part of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust family, comprising Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts, Slapton Ley and Two urban nature reserves.

Specialising in breeding many endangered species, Newquay Zoo is at the forefront of conservation, education and entertainment.

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Telling the unique story of St Austell Brewery, its beers, its wines and spirits, its pubs, and the people who have worked there over the past 155 years, St Austell Brewery’s new multi-media Visitor Centre is the latest attraction to open in Cornwall.

The existing visitor centre has been almost doubled in size and has been fitted out with a range of innovative and interactive exhibitions. These spotlight the traditional brewing process used to create St Austell Brewery’s award-winning ales, delve into the fascinating history of the family-owned company and its 163 pubs in Cornwall and Devon and track the company’s development over the last two centuries.

The most up to date technology is used to tell the story of the historic Brewery and this provides an ideal compliment to the popular guided tours of the Brewery.

In addition to this, the Visitor Centre’s Hicks Bar, named after St Austell Brewery’s founder Walter Hicks will give visitors the chance to sample St Austell Brewery’s ales in comfortable surroundings. The centre also features a revamped shop showcasing St Austell bottled ales, Walter Hicks wines and spirits, many at trade price, along with branded gifts and clothing.

The interactive exhibitions include:

The Brewery story
Visitors can trace the development of the Brewery and its home on the current site in St Austell using a special book which triggers lights on the beautifully illustrated timeline back wall as the pages are turned.

The people story
St Austell Brewery is a true “people business”. The display provides video footage and photographs to tell the story of the ‘families’ connected with the Brewery over its long history.

The estate story
A timeline slider tracks the expansion of the St Austell Brewery estate of pubs, inns and hotels, triggering a lighted map and illustrated timeline graphic wall.

There is also a virtual pub sign which displays many of the beautiful signs which hang outside the Brewery’s pubs, as well as a web-based pub finder to enable visitors to discover more about St Austell Brewery’s 163 pubs, hotels and inns.

The brewing process
Built by the Brewery’s engineers using authentic materials, this 20 foot high, three dimensional exhibition provides a spectacular hands-on display to show the traditional brewing process used to create St Austell Brewery’s range of award winning ales. Brewing beer is a very simple, traditional five stage process based on gravity. The exhibit takes people step by step through this process from milling the malt barley right through to filling the casks with beer. The control panel is made from the original “copper” used in the Brewery from 1918 to 1999.

The cooper display
The age old art of barrel making is illustrated through graphics, video and sample coopers’ tools. Visitors looking inside the barrel with find an interactive video display using historic film footage to show coopers at work.

The beer brands and bottle display
A specially designed display showing St Austell Brewery’s range of beer brands, bottled ales, wines, spirits and soft drinks through the ages.

• The Visitor Centre is open Monday to Friday 9 to 5.30 (10 to 4.00 Saturday and Sundays).
• Guided Brewery tours and visits to the museum cost £6.50 per head.
• Children £4.00 per head (must be 8 years or older to go on the tour)
• Senior Citizens £5.00
• Students £4.00
• Family ticket (Two adults and two children under 18) £16.00)
• 25% discount available for CAMRA members.
• To book a tour call 01726 66022 or just turn up.
• Evening tours available by request.

All tours include a complimentary pint of beer or a soft drink at the Hicks Bar.

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Land’s End is a place of stunning scenery and fabled views, where magnificent cliffs overlook the surging Atlantic.

It is a place of mystery and legend, with superb pay-as-you-go attractions, as well a hotel. Return to the Last Labyrinth is the world-famous, multi-sensory show reborn in the 21st century. Amazing tales of heroism, skulduggery and adventure.

Air Sea Rescue Alert is an exciting motion theatre presentation filmed in the treacherous waters off Land’s End. Join the rescue services as they rush to the aid of a stricken fisherman.

Miles of Memories, Land’s End - John O’Groats: discover the heart-warming and extraordinary stories of the 'End-to-Enders', along with many of the outlandish modes of transport they used.

The Relentless Sea is a hands-on, thought-provoking exhibition telling the heroic story of Mankind’s struggle to win a living from the sea.

Meet the animals at Greeb Farm, a restored 200-year-old Cornish farmstead on land worked for centuries against the odds in a spectacular setting.

The Cornish Sweet Manufactory is Land's End's very own traditional sweet factory.

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  Information hotline 0870 4580099.
  
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  Hotel reservations 01736 871844.

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Brocklands Adventure Park is a fun park, with excellent facilities for the whole family, open all year.

Brocklands is set in the beautiful North Cornish coast area of Kilkhampton, just off the main A39, only five miles from Bude and approximately 12 miles from Bideford.

There is ample free parking, large licensed restaurant and 10-pin bowling, supa karts, bumper boats, archery, a steam train, ball pools, play areas, inside and out, wildlife walk and education centre.

Disabled groups are welcome, and reduced rates are available. Bowling, testaurant and bar open evenings.

• Open: March, April, May and June - open every day 10.30am-5pm (Easter and Whit, half-term, open 10am-6pm).
  
  
• Phone info line for up-to-date details - 01288 321920.

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The Bodmin and Wenford Railway is Cornwall's only standard gauge railway still operated by steam locomotives and the trains run through some delightful Cornish scenery.

The railway is typical of a branch line in the 1950s. Steam tank engines are the main locomotives to be seen here but diesel traction is also used, particularly on Saturdays.

The main station on the line is at Bodmin General. The engine sheds are here, as well as a souvenir shop and refreshment room in the restored station buildings. Boscarne Junction provides a direct link with the Camel Trail, the cyclepath and footpath running to Padstow along the route of the old Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway.

Bodmin Parkway station is on the main line from London to Penzance and has a beautiful walk along the old carriage drive to the historic National Trust property, Lanhydrock House.

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The Lappa Valley Steam Railway runs on one of the oldest railway trackbeds in Cornwall.

Opened in 1849 as a mineral line from Newquay to East Wheal Rose, it later became part of the Great Western Railway's Newquay to Chacewater branch line. This was closed in 1963, and in 1974 Eric Booth, the founder of Lappa Valley, reopened part of the line as a narrow-gauge railway.

Lappa Valley is now three railways in one. Board our 15-inch gauge steam train, Zebedee or Muffin, at Benny Halt and travel on a mile-long journey through a beautiful Cornish valley to our leisure park at East Wheal Rose.

Then ride on two more miniature railways: the 10 1/4-inch gauge climbs nearly half a mile further up the valley, and the 7 1/4-inch gauge travels a circuit of 320 metres.

Families love the canoes and pedaloes, crazy golf, children’s play area, and nature walks. For those interested in the past, an imposing mine engine house stands in the leisure park and its story is told in a dramatic video presentation.

There is also have a brick path maze designed on Cornishman Richard Trevithick’s world-first 1804 steam locomotive.

Careful ecological management of the site allows wild flowers, ferns and trees to thrive and provides a good habitat for a large variety of native birds, animals and insects.

There is also a licensed coffee shop and well-stocked gift shop.

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An award-winning, all-wether attraction, located in a historic china clay building above the old harbour at Charlestown, the Shipwreck and Heritage Centre has the largest UK collection of artefacts and treasure recovered from shipwrecks, ranging from the Titanic to diving equipment.

The centre is built on top of tunnels formerly used to transport china clay to the harbour, and some of the tunnels are still open, ready to be explored. The tunnel leads to a viewing gallery where one of the best views of Charlestown harbour can be enjoyed.

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For years the World In Miniature has offered families the chance to see the world in half a day.

You can see many wonders of world, including the Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, the Pyramids, Jurassic Park and Cornwall's own Eden Project.

A maze feature has been constructed and there is also a playzone and the Batflyer, where you can launch yourself into oblivion and spiral earthwards on the twisting track, suspended in the Batflyer cage as the world flashes past.

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St Michael's Mount in the beautiful setting of Mount’s Bay at Penzance is dedicated to the archangel St Michael who, according to legend, appeared here in 495.

Edward the Confessor founded a chapel on the Mount in 1044 in a grant to the Benedictine Abbey of Mont Saint Michael in Brittany.

In 12th century when Richard I was on Crusade a group of John's supporters seized the Mount to hold as a fortress. It reverted to monastic use but was treated again as a stronghold in the Wars of the Roses and the Cornish Rebellion against Edward VI.

During the Civil War the Mount was held for the King but surrendered to the Parliamentarians in 1646. In 1660 the Mount was bought by Sir John St Aubyn and since that time it has had a peaceful existence.

The Mount remained mostly unoccupied, except for occasional use during the summer months, until the late 18th century when the family began to set up a more permanent residence.

Despite the difficulties of building on a great rock cut off at every high tide the family constructed a great new wing. The impressive Victorian apartments are decorated with fine plaster reliefs and contain some Chippendale furniture.

There are also collections of paintings and armour. The Mount remained in the ownership of the St Aubyn family until 1964 when it was given to the National Trust by the 3rd Lord St Levan.

St Michael’s Mount is open all the year.

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Visit The Minack by day and explore this unique open-air theatre created from the cliffside at Porthcurno by Rowena Cade.

Enjoy the spectacular views over Porthcurno bay to the Logan Rock. The Rowena Cade exhibition tells the remarkable story of how a girl who enjoyed the gentility of Victorian Cheltenham grew up to build this internationally famous theatre.

It shows how a local village play in 1929 led to the summer season now staged in the Minack’s 750-seat auditorium. Enjoy the wealth of photographs, models and audio-visual displays. Explore the theatre, be surprised by sub-tropical plants, relax in the coffee shop overlooking the theatre and soak up the magic of the Minack.

Theatre-goers: The summer season of plays, opera and musicals runs from May to September.

The comprehensive website gives full details of the summer programme, on-line booking during the season and everything else you need to know about the Minack.

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• Box office/information 01736 810181/471

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Bodmin Jail dates back to 1776. Public executions were always guaranteed crowd pullers in years gone by. The hangings retreated behind doors in 1862. The last hanging took place as recently as 1909.

The large 18th century structure towers above you as you drive into the car park. Look closely and you can see faces staring back at you from the old jail windows.

As you enter the jail and walk down the stairs the air begins to cool. The jail doesnt need pyro-technics to enhance the experience, you can sense the past just by walking around.

You can visit the condemned cell and some grisly exhibits telling of the lives and imprisonment of the inmates of Bodmin Jail.

The Crown Jewels and Doomsday Book were stored here during the Great War.

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Colliford Lake Park is situated near Bolventor at the very heart of Bodmin Moor (famous for its Beast), but is just 500yds off the A30 between Launceston and Bodmin. This is a farm-based attraction with eight acres of woodland, 30 acres of farm stock with sheep, goats, red deer and other animals. There are also 20 acres of parkland set aside for family entertainments, including a protected wetlands area. Colliford is the first moorland park in Cornwall and you can get a real flavour of Bodmin Moor in our all-in-one attraction. It is a perfect stopping-off point if you are traveling in or out of Cornwall or just looking for a fun-packed family day out on Bodmin Moor. We have extensive indoor and outdoor play areas for the kids, while the adults can enjoy the miles of varied nature trails, around Colliford Lake, through woodlands, across moorland meadow and over protected wetlands. While sampling the many delights of the park, you can stop off at the Black Cat Snack Shack, have a family picnic in the grounds or enjoy the rustic feel of our newly refurbished Colliford Cafe, a fully equipped restaurant offering home-made cooked meals, a warm welcome and stunning scenic views across the lake and beyond...

Situated just 130 metres from the picturesque harbour at Mevagissey, the World of Miniature Railways has more than 40 computerised locomotives which travel through a variety of intricate and detailed scenery.

Control the trains on the indoor garden layout, complete with fresh summer fragrances! Watch the fairground rides and lights in an interactive display. Enjoy further improvements to Junior Junction, especially for the younger spectators.

Browse through our extensive model shop; ideal for the experienced modellers and the Thomas the Tank Engine enthusiasts.

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Step back in time and re-live the wild days of the American West of the 1800s. See live action shows, ride a real cowpony, visit the museums, talk with authentically-dressed characters who bring history alive.

There's live action, a museum. shops, Silver City, Old Fort Smith and the Mining Camp.

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The National Seal Sanctuary, set in the picturesque Helford Estuary, by the beautiful village of Gweek, is a rescue, rehabilitation, and release centre.

The sanctuary started in the winter of 1958 when a baby seal, only a few hours old, was washed up on the beach at St Agnes. Ken Jones, who lived with his wife just 100 yards from the beach, picked up the pup and took it back to his small garden.

For many years he ran a rescue centre for seals and oiled birds, with just one pool, at St Agnes. The news of his work with seals spread, and he received more and more calls about injured seals.

Ken realised he needed more room, as the single pool at St Agnes was just not big enough. The Sanctuary moved to Gweek in 1975, and Ken slowly built up the size, and number of pools, so he could care for the increasing number of seals that were being rescued around the Cornish coast.

The sanctuary now has nursery pools, convalescence, and resident pools, plus a specially-designed hospital. Over the years this has been extended to include isolation pools, as well as treatment and preparation areas.

The sanctuary has rescued many seals over the years, and most are well enough to be released back into the wild after treatment, but some seals, for various reasons, would not survive back in the wild, so they stay as guests at the sanctuary.

In addition to the Grey and Common Seals, there are Californian and Patagonian Sea Lions. The sanctuary also provides a much-needed haven for a variety of other animals, such as otters, ponies and goats.

Occasionally the sanctuary's facilities and expertise are called upon to aid in the rescue of other marine creatures such as dolphins and turtles.

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