St Columb

St Columb Major is one of Cornwall’s characterful inland market towns, sitting on the old A39 roughly equidistant between Newquay and Wadebridge. It has a handsome town centre with Georgian and Victorian buildings, a good parish church, and a strong sense of local identity that sets it apart from the coastal tourist towns.

The town is best known for its ancient tradition of hurling — a rough-and-tumble ball game played through the streets on Shrove Tuesday and the Saturday eleven days later. The silver ball is thrown from the centre of town and two teams of “townsmen” and “countrymen” battle to carry it to goals two miles apart. It’s chaotic, physical and genuinely medieval in spirit — one of the last surviving examples of a tradition that was once common across Cornwall.

St Columb is well positioned for exploring mid-Cornwall without paying coastal prices. The beaches at Newquay, Mawgan Porth and Watergate Bay are about 15 minutes by car, while the Camel estuary and Padstow are a similar distance north. The Japanese Garden and Screech Owl Sanctuary at St Columb are both worth a visit, and the surrounding countryside is quietly attractive — rolling farmland, wooded valleys and empty lanes good for cycling.