1. Change Bank Using an ethical bank that doesn’t support fossil fuels is the single most powerful thing you can do to help the environment. Ethical banks include Triodos, Starling, The Cooperative Bank and Nationwide. The credentials of your bank can be checked at bank.green and there’s a blog here with a list of suggestions: https://wise.com/gb/blog/ethical-banks-uk […]
Your Railholiday guide to the Five Best Food and Drink Experiences while staying in St Germans
There’s much more to Cornish food and drink than just pasties and scrumpy (although we are rather fond of both). From foraging for food, to Punjabi cooking and wine tasting, we hope you’ll find something to suit your palette in our suggestions. 1. Wild food foraging with Vix Hill-Ryder A wild foraging course with Vix […]
Your Railholiday Guide to the Five Best Footplate and Driver Experiences while staying in St Germans
What better way to enjoy your train based holiday than to book a lesson in how to drive a train. Here are our recommendations. Driver Experiences: Bodmin Railway Nearest train station: Bodmin Parkway. Bodmin Railway stops at Bodmin Parkway station, but you’ll need to check times. They also run a cafe overlooking the line at […]
How to Explore the Barbican, Royal William Yard and Mount Edgcumbe by Train and Ferry
We are always looking for interesting ways to explore and enjoy our beautiful local area using public transport. So we were delighted in 2025 when Plymouth Boat Trips introduced a summertime ferry service from Saltash Waterside to the historic Royal William Yard, stopping at the Barbican on the way. From The Royal William Yard you can […]
Day trips by train – The Railholiday guide to Penzance
Penzance is a coastal town defined by its history, providing top quality attractions of ancient sites as well as a variety of nearby beaches to enjoy on sunny days. Take a stroll along the town’s seafront, or indulge yourself in a shopping frenzy in the many independent shops. The town is surrounded by an area […]
How to identify wild flowers in early summer
It’s that time of year when the hedges are abundant with beautiful flowers. You may be familiar with many of these flowers, but hopefully this short guide will help you name ones you don’t know. It is far from comprehensive; but there are many excellent field guides to extend your knowledge. We recommend Marjorie Blamey’s Wild […]
Full Steam Ahead! Top Tips for Seeing Charter Trains in Cornwall in 2026
Mainline steam and diesel specials Nothing quite beats the whoosh of a steam train through the station. Guests to our holiday carriages in St Germans and Hayle can always expect plenty of passenger service trains and a bit of freight, but when the specials thunder through it really is a very special experience. We’ll be seeing […]
The Best of St Germans and the Rame Peninsula
At the mouth of the Tamar, on one side scored with beautiful beaches and quaint fishing villages, on the other deep river valleys and the rolling countryside the Rame Peninsula is a gem in the Cornish crown. Slightly off the beaten track, it offers the discerning traveller exceptional natural beauty unsullied by crowds. Like the […]
Our journey to net zero – Decarbonising our energy use
Running any business requires energy, and we are not in a position to go for complete self generation, although we do have some solar panels. So we rely on external providers. Along with making sure we have green energy, we also have worked hard to reduce our usage. We are currently carbon neutral in electricity […]
Our Snowdrop Collection
When we first bought our woods in the 1993 we planted a small clump of snowdrops from our friends Bernie and Jeanie Skewes’s garden. (Bernie was a sign writer, poet, poacher and actor, who’s claim to fame was as the first UK Tarzan in the 1930s and the author of a Poacher’s Tale – a […]