Serene chalet on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula near superb sandy beach

Rightly designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Roseland offers a magnificent unspoiled landscape of woods, fields and lanes girdled by a shoreline of coves, cliffs and beaches made easily accessible by the famous South West Coastal Path. There are special treasures here like the round houses at Veryan, the ancient King Harry Ferry, and the uniquely beautiful waterside church of St. Just-in-Roseland with its sub-tropical churchyard. The quaint conjoined villages of Portscatho and Gerrans are an easy walk away (along a bridleway or along the SW Coastal Path). A little further afield are the chalk-and-cheese towns of Falmouth and Truro — the bustling Bohemian port and the graceful county capital (bring your own boat and you can sail direct to both!). The National Trust cares not only for the coastal strip but also for some of the area’s finest gardens, including Trelissick and Glendurgan; other no less famous local gardens include Trebah and the Lost Gardens of Heligan.