Shopping and Amenities
Food Shopping
Launceston
(20 mins) ,
Bude
(25 mins) and
Wadebridge
(30 mins) all have a good range of independent shops for clothing, gifts and souvenirs.
Camelford
(15 mins) is a bit small to enthuse the serious shopper, but is worth a stop if you are passing through. However the rest of this page is dedicated to the important things in life:
Food and Drink!
Please buy local
to get the best of Cornwall's excellent produce, supporting our farming and fishing communities and independent town centres. However, if you want to get a supermarket delivery, this is also an option with most.
Meat and Fish
For the sake of the planet we all need to eat less meat and fish (the Olsson family includes a vegan, a vegetarian, an ex-vegetarian, and a life-long meat lover who is cutting down!). This makes it all the more important to source our meat and fish responsibly and sustainably. We can recommend the following local outlets, any of whom can beat the supermarkets for quality, provenance and service. Also try the farm shops listed further down.
BUTCHERS:
Launceston:- Philip Warren is a local institution and is hard to beat, and Bray Farm Shop is also worth a try.
Camelford:- Steve Heard
Wadebridge:- Williams & Son, also Garry Dutton.
FISHMONGERS:
Widemouth Bay:- The Beach House Shop
Port Isaac:- Dennis Knight and Just Shellfish
Wadebridge:- Off the Hook
Padstow:- Rick Stein's (obviously) and Prawn on the Lawn
Farm Shops, Veg and Groceries
Our two local farm shops, Hilltop Farm
and Boscastle Farm Shop both combine some food with gifts and a cafe. Around Launceston, you can also find Strawberry Fields
and Tre Pol Pen which are both larger options with a greater range and bigger restaurants. Tre Pol Pen also has a refill area but if you are interested in this then closer to home in Launceston is Let's Get Naked where you can load up on all sorts of goodies. In the same arcade is a good local veg shop Josephine's Garden while on the outskirts of town in the Pennygillam industrial estate there's also Veg in the Shed just along from Philip Warrens
Drinks
For that bottle of something special, we can recommend North Coast Wine (also a great cocktail bar for a treat while you're there) in Bude, or Wadebridge Wines. For multi-award-winning Cornish wines, including the now-famous bubbly (and a great day out for wine enthusiasts), visit the
Camel Valley Vineyard.
For beer
fans, there are several local micro-breweries including Firebrand/Penpont, Tintagel, Harbour
and Padstow, as well as the established Cornish favorites, Sharp's
and the St Austell Brewery.
Not forgetting that the Westcountry is the home of cider
(and also excellent apple juice), and Cornwall is no exception: try Haywood Farm
or Healey's, both of which have visitor centres and orchard tours, or Cornish Orchards.
And of course Cornwall has not escaped the gin
craze! There is a healthy range to chose from, all of which can be found in the Little Gin Shack
in Wadebridge, along side other Cornish beverages. Also of note is Plymouth Gin, made to the original recipe in the oldest working distillery in England since 1793. For a true single malt whiskey
you must also cross the border into Devon and find the Dartmoor Whiskey Distillery.
The farm shops listed above are another good place to find locally made drinks, including Cornish Tea and Coffee - for the morning after!
