A secret idyllic paradise

Inside every British holidaymaker, over-stressed at the airport or late for the Channel ferry lurks another person. This inner, younger, self would probably rather be on holiday in an Enid Blyton novel.

Here, no journey involves more than a couple of hours gentle motoring. Every gin-clear rock pool contains a starfish. Crab sandwiches are always on the Inn menu. It would have to be Cornwall, of course. It sounds impossible, a daydream at a Gatwick check-in queue. But a few years ago my family and I stumbled across just such a tiny piece of Blyton-land and have been going back ever since.

Trewince Manor is on the farthest finger of the Roseland Peninsula, so shut around by river and sea that it is almost an island. The acres of gardens and woodlands around the creeper-clad granite house shelter many varied species.

Tenants of the solidly-comfortable timber lodges enjoy their verandahs and views down to the gentle, sheltered Towan beach. In the woods between here and Mill Creek, badgers shuffle by. Non-affluent windsurfers, drawn to the spot by Trewince's private jetty opening on to a calm sheltered estuary, share the landing point with pairs of resident herons.

"Everyone who comes here sees Trewince differently," said Peter Heywood, proprietor with his wife Liz since 1985. "Even we find it hard to pin down exactly what makes it such a special place but we're not the only ones who feel it."

Trewince is like nowhere else

Trewince is like nowhere else, with its varied vistas of coast and country, the gentle vibrancy of the natural world and the warmth of its welcome. The impeccably maintained estate fits perfectly into its surroundings, a world away from the rush of modern life yet easily accessible. For us it is the home of our happiest holidays, somewhere very special, even a meeting place of heaven and earth.

The coast with the most

Journalist Vivien Spurgeon enjoyed a long weekend on Cornwall's stunning Roseland Peninsula. "Trewince's privately-owned acres offer seclusion, peace, fields, trees and wildlife as well as the perfect spot from which to explore other Cornish gems such as the Eden Project or the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Our lodge was a fully equipped Swedish-style wooden chalet that could sleep up to six people, and was very spacious with great views over the Roseland Peninsula and the sea. We walked around the tip of the peninsula, described perfectly by Christopher Somerville writing in The Telegraph as "the remotest and the most beautiful peninsula, uncrowded even at the height of summer, a neck of land half drowned in greenery where you can walk without the world's boots grazing at your heels." "

Find Us

From St. Austell take the A390 towards Truro, then bear left on the B3287 to Tregony. From Tregony follow the signs for St. Mawes for 7 miles to Trewithian. Turn left at the sign for Gerrans and Portscatho. Stay on this road, following the signs for St. A