We’ve been back to Helsbury Park to see their fabulous new pool. As well as the last word in luxury this facility has been designed with sustainability at its core and includes a sauna, gym, toilets and wet rooms.
The pool measures fifteen by five metres with a lounge area at one end and a spacious curved sundeck providing a magnificent view of the valley and surrounding countryside.

Truro Skate Park

Truro’s new Skatepark was officially opened on 11 April 2009. It cost half a million pounds and took four years to complete - everyone who’s experienced it so far says it was well worth the money and the wait.

Check out our panorama which was shot at the official opening.

Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives

At the beginning of April we went to Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives to see Tavs Jørgensen’s. exhibition From virtual line to physical form: Glass and Ceramics. The glass and ceramic pieces you can see in our panorama originate from a line drawn in the air with a digital stylus. Jørgensen is a member of Autonomatic, a research group based at University College Falmouth that explores the use of digital design and manufacturing technologies in the creative process of making 3D objects.

Just up the hill from the lifeboat station, the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives exhibits artists and designers of national and international significance alongside new talent. Gallery director Petronilla Silver is a former director of the Contemporary Art Society and a respected expert on collecting. The gallery’s shows a mix of work - paintings, drawings, photographs, original prints, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, wood and metalwork - with occasional solo exhibitions.

Other artists whose work appears in the gallery include Maggi Hambling, Ana Maria Pacheco, Michael Porter, Irene Lees, Sheila Oliner, Susan Derges, Drummond Masterton, Emmanuel Cooper, Janice Tchalenko, Marlene McKibbin and Ismini Samanidou.

The Vean dining room

The Vean is an eight-bedroomed luxury country house retreat which sleeps up to 16 people. Beautifully furnished and decorated as an elegant period Georgian country house it has all the comforts of a modern luxury home.

Part of the Caerhays Estate, the Vean has stunning views across Caerhays Castle gardens and the wooded Porthluney Valley and is less than a mile from the family beach at Porthluney. It is licensed for civil weddings and caters for all types of family and corporate event.

On lookaroundcornwall.com you can see the  dining room and drawing room (above) and Nancor, one of the Vean’s eight bedrooms.

It’s been snowing here in Cornwall, as well as in most of the rest of the country. The snow has been causing all kinds of problems on the roads and elsewhere, with many schools closed and people unable to get to work. Here in Truro’s Victoria Gardens the snow makes a perfect Christmas card scene.

Is Land’s End the world’s most iconic landmark? Though it has no great historical significance, there’s something undeniably romantic about the South Western tip of the British mainland.

The starting point for numerous sponsored journeys to John O’Groat’s at the opposite end of the UK, the signpost indicates the distance in miles to this and other destinations. For a small consideration you can have your home town added to the signpost and have your photo taken underneath it.

In the midst of this wild and remotest of spots sits a unlikley development of tourism attractions. This juxtaposition isn’t everyone’s idea of a good combination, but it is a popular family attraction providing indoor entertainmant for kids when the weather isn’t so good. If you’re keen on walking, but don’t care too much for seaside attractions and gift shops, stop off at Sennen Cove a Mile to the North and walk down via the Coast Path.

Our panorama shows the view from the signpost including the stunning Land’s End coastline and Longships Lighthouse a mile and a half off the coast.

Here in the Lookout tower at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, you’d be forgiven for spending all of your time gazing out of the window. The sweeping panorama of the estuary, Falmouth, the harbour and docks has to be one of the most spectacular views in Cornwall.

There’s plenty to see and do inside as well, NMMC has really pushed the boat out (sorry:) with exhibits, interactive displays, and regular events all aimed at making the world of boats and boating more accessible.

Down below, in the Tidal Zone, there’s a very different view, showing what goes on below the surface when the tide comes in.

The crowds turned out in force, and though we’d hesitate to make an uneducated guess at the numbers, from where our photographer was standing, it looked like last year’s record ten thousand plus turn-out had been bettered by a wide margin.

The giant lanterns are made by local artists, community groups and colleges and year six children from all the local primary schools make and carry their own lanterns in the procession.

You can see three of the spectacular giant lanterns that took part in this year’s procession on Lookaround Cornwall, One from University College Falmouth, Truro Cathedral’s Angels, and a ferocious-looking lion.