Property special: Look to the West - Telegraph

Property special: Look to the West - Telegraph

Carolyn and Matthew Arnold both grew up in Cornwall, then moved to London. “This is where we came with my mother for Sunday afternoons when I was two years old,” says Carolyn, looking across Watergate Bay on the north Cornish coast. They live in Holland Park, west London, but have kept on returning for holidays.

Now they have taken the plunge and bought a three-bedroom apartment in this wild and glamorous spot, home of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant and Extreme Academy for beach and water sports. They spend as many weeks here as they can, as Matthew can catch the Newquay flight back to London to work. They let the rest of the weeks through Beach Retreats, a company specialising in boutique ocean-side lets.

“It is a perfect counterpart to our busy lives, a flip-flops existence. We love kiting, surfing and cliff walks. Our 12-year-old son Jamie already feels he is very Cornish.”