The Pub: The Tinners Arms, Zennor

The Walk: Finest coastal walk in England, 6.5 miles

The Tinners Arms, Zennor

This linear walk to The Tinners Arms in Zennor justifies the walk entirely. The walk from St Ives to Zennor is widely acclaimed as one of the finest sections of the entire 630-mile South West Coast Path.

Leave the cream teas and cobbled lanes of St Ives behind and follow the path westward into one of the most untamed corners of England.

It demands respect: there are genuine scrambles over sea-worn boulders, steep ascents, and sections where the path narrows to a thread between cliff and heather. Good boots are essential. It's a tough walk, but don't be put off - it's a safe challenge.

And at the end of this special walk, tucked into the folds of a tiny granite village that the twentieth century seems largely to have overlooked, sits the Tinners Arms — a pub that has been serving weary travellers for 800 years.

It is, quite simply, the perfect destination.

Thanks to Mr T. Thomas for recommending this pub walk.

Rating: 2 stars
1 vote

About The Tinners Arms

Last Visited: Aug 2025

The Tinners Arms was built in 1271 to house the stone masons constructing St Senara's Church next door. Some 750 years later, it remains the only pub in Zennor, a Grade II-listed granite building of low beams, dark wood, and two roaring stone fireplaces — a place described by the Daily Telegraph as having a "sleepy, timeless quality and the way it's just not changed in centuries."

It has not.

Its name honours the tin miners who once worked this remote stretch of the Penwith peninsula, and the pub sign still pictures a miner at work.

The house ales continue the tradition: Tinners Ale and Zennor Mermaid — the latter a nod to the famous carved mermaid in the church opposite, a Cornish legend that has drawn curious visitors to this valley for generations.

The contrast with St Ives, just five miles and a world away, is extraordinary. Where St Ives swells each summer with gallery-goers, ice-cream queues and harbourside traffic, Zennor sits in almost defiant stillness.

There is no mobile signal at the Tinners. The moorland presses in on all sides. The granite boulders that make the final stretch of this walk so demanding are the same stones that built these walls.

Sitting here with a pint after that walk is not simply a rest — it is a destiny.

D.H. Lawrence spent a fortnight here in 1916 with his wife Frieda, drawn by the wildness of the place. Artists, walkers, poets and regulars have been finding their way here ever since.

The sheltered beer garden faces south and catches the sun; the bar catches the firelight in winter. On Thursday evenings a folk session fills the low-ceilinged room with music. On Sundays, the roast is, by all accounts, worth planning a walk around.

A perfect day.

D.H. Lawrence captured it like this:

“At Zennor one sees infinite Atlantic, all peacock-mingled colours, and the gorse is sunshine itself. Zennor is a most beautiful place: a tiny granite village nestling under high shaggy moor-hills and a big sweep of lovely sea beyond, such a lovely sea lovelier even than the Mediterranean. It is the best place I have been in, I think.”

Tinners Ale, Tinners Arms, Zennor
Zennor Village

Pub Key Information

WEBSITE https://tinnersarms.com/
ADDRESS The Tinners Arms, Zennor, TR26 3BY
PHONE 01736 796927
WHAT3WORDS ///importers.bunk.whiplash
PARKING At the pub. This walk assumes that you start in St Ives. The 16/16A bus back to St Ives picks up on the road, called Zennor Turn.
LOCATION Zennor is south of St Ives, Cornwall.
HANDY FOR Land's End; Penzance; Newlyn; Cape Cornwall.

Walk Overview

Let's be honest about what this walk asks of you.

Six and a half miles of relentlessly undulating cliff path, the ground underfoot changing constantly — springy turf in St Ives giving way to loose shingle, then uneven rock, then genuine boulder scrambling in the final approach to Zennor where moorland springs keep the stones permanently wet whatever the weather.

Your legs will know about it the next morning.

So why bother? Because this is one of the last genuinely wild stretches of the English coastline. Within twenty minutes of leaving St Ives the crowds are gone, and it's just you & the Atlantic.

And at the end of it all, a lane delivers you into Zennor — a hamlet so quiet and unchanged that arriving on foot feels the only sensible way to get there.

The Tinners Arms is waiting. You have earned it completely.

Walk Instructions: Choose what works for you

There are multiple ways to consume the route described below.

  • Either follow the online instructions, or download and print a copy of the route.
  • If you have the OS Maps app, you can follow a saved route directly in the App.
  • Or download the GPX file for use on your chosen GPS-based navigation application.

Walk Key Information

START/FINISH Start in front of the Tate Museum, St Ives, above Porthmeor Beach. Finish at The Tinners Arms, Zennor.
PARKING Parking is available at The Tinners Arms. But the route assumes a base in St Ives, with a bus back to St Ives from Zennor. Parking in St Ives is notoriously difficult.
GRID REFERENCE SW 517 408 is the reference for the start at the Tate.
WHAT3WORDS ///zoom.madness.inversely is the reference for the Tate.
DISTANCE/TIME 6.5 miles  / 10.5 km; approx 3.5 hours
ASCENT 1600 feet / 500 metres
PATHS/TERRAIN Well signposted national walking trail. Wear walking boots, preferably waterproof - gentle turf to start, increasingly rough and rocky through the middle, then a genuinely demanding boulder scramble in the final stretch before Zennor. Lots of springs off the moor keep the path damp even in dry weather.
DIFFICULTY Difficult. A tough walk, but all the more enjoyable for it.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT The intent of the walk as described is that you start at St Ives, walk the South West Coast Path to Zennor, returning to St Ives by bus. The 16/16A is the service from St Just direction, stopping at Zennor Turn. It's down the lane - Church Street - from The Tinners, on the main road (B3306).
TOILETS At start (Porthmeor Beach) and the end (The Tinners).
OTHER PUBS TO VISIT Gurnard's Head, Treen is closest, and not easy to miss on the B3306. The Engine Room, Cripplesease, Nancledra is good.

Directions

 

  • Start on the road in front of the Tate St Ives above Porthmeor Beach (TR26 1TG). Head to the western end of the beach road, past the Tate, and pick up the coast path footway that runs up alongside the Porthmeor Beach car park.

  • From the car park, take the footpath towards the bowling green, keeping the sea on your right.

  • The path passes behind the small headland at Carrick Du.

  • Follow it around Man's Head — at low tide it's worth a glance down to the shoreline to appreciate the rock formation that gives it its name.

  • Pass through the kissing gate and continue west along the coast. The path is well-waymarked with the South West Coast Path acorn markers throughout — keep following them and keep the sea to your right.

  • Pass Clodgy Point, then work your way west through a series of ups and downs around Hor Point, Pen Enys Point and Carn Naun Point. Turn back here for the last sweeping view of St Ives and Porthmeor Beach — it'll be a while before you see it again.

  • Continue west past Mussel Point, where the terrain becomes noticeably more demanding. The path narrows, and the final miles involve genuine boulder scrambling. Take your time — some sections are always wet from springs draining off the moor.

  • Pass Gala Rocks and push on towards Zennor Head, keeping the coast path markers in sight. The landscape here is raw and ancient, the granite cliffs dropping over 200 feet to the sea.

  • Before Zennor Head the path forks. Take the left fork, clearly signposted to Zennor village. The right fork continues westward along the coast path — not your route today.

  • Follow the lane down into the village. Within ten minutes the tower of St Senara's Church comes into view, and a few steps further brings you to the Tinners Arms on your left — your destination, and every bit worth it.

 

The best pub walks are meant to be shared.

If you’ve followed this route, found a better path, got lost, uncovered a standout pint somewhere else, or simply have a story to tell, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

This site is as much about shared discoveries as it is about the walks themselves.

Add comment

Comments

There are no comments yet.