DAY 2: ST MARY’S

ROUND THE ISLAND ON A GOLF CART

You can spend your first full day in the Scillies touring the whole of ST MARY’S – although it’s the largest and most populated of Scilly’s five inhabited islands, St Mary’s still only covers just six square miles. There is very little traffic on the island’s quiet country lanes, so the best way to do this – and certainly the most fun – is to trundle around in a golf cart. Pick up your cart from Scilly Cart Co in Porthmellon Business Park, on the fringes of Hugh Town [hire available from 9am to 5.30pm | 4-seat cart £59 for the day, 6-seat cart £69 for the day] and head to the north end of the island, just two miles up the road, for your first stop. Set among rolling heathland, the well-preserved burial chamber of BANT’S CARN dates back to the Bronze Age. You can climb around the tomb (known as a Scillonian entrance grave, as ninety percent of these types of tomb are found here) and peer inside the chamber, and there are tremendous views across to the nearby island of Tresco. The cluster of rocks further down the hillside is HALANGY DOWN ANCIENT VILLAGE, a farming settlement that sprang up during the Iron Age; you can still make out the terraces of the fields they cultivated on the surrounding slopes. The beach is probably calling by now, and there’s a fine one at PELISTRY BAY, just two miles away, on the northwest side of St Mary’s. The azure waters here are more reminiscent of the Caribbean than Cornwall, and you can wade out to Toll’s Island, connected to St Mary’s by a sand bar at low tide. On your way back to Hugh Town, you could stop off at PORTH HELLICK DOWN, a moorland of odd-shaped boulders, to see if your kids can pick out the so-called Druid’s Chair or Loaded Camel Rock, which – perhaps unsurprisingly – looks a lot like a dromedary laden with goods. From here, it’s another two miles back to Hugh Town, a few parallel streets that serve as the island’s hub and the de-facto capital of the Scillies.

THE LIJOMA LOWDOWN

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