The Cornwall and Devon Area

Located near the beautiful Cornish Coast, a short distance from the beautiful flat sandy beaches of Bude. Penstowe has every facility for a perfect holiday. You will always find plenty to do whatever the weather Penstowe makes an ideal centre for early and late breaks. Come along and have a really enjoyable time.

So much to see and to do for all the family in Cornwall

Bude History

The Bude Canal stretches some 35 miles from Bude to Launceston via Holsworthy, and is a magnificent feat of engineering. The canal was used to carry rich sea sand which was used by the farmers as fertiliser for the poor soil inland. A series of aqueducts, embankments and wheel pits for the inclined planes carried tub-boats to a height of 430 feet above sea level within just six miles, all of these manually constructed using picks and shovels. The canal closed in 1891 with the advent of the railways. Follow the history of the canal at Bude Museum. Nowadays, the first two miles of the canal remain in water and are used by residents and visitors to the area, for fishing, walking and boating.

Tarka Trail

Tarka Country covers more than 700 square miles of rolling countryside from the north Devon coast and Exmoor to the northern slopes of Dartmoor, and was the inspiration of the author Henry Williamson to create "Tarka the Otter". Tarka's fictional birthplace was amongst the roots of an old oak close to Canal Bridge which can be seen from the trail in the Torridge Valley.