Pleasant Streams Farm Camping

‘There’s very little to do here, no bells and whistles’, says Tony Hedges, proprietor of Pleasant Streams Farm Camping. Yet this is indeed a pleasant field in which to pitch a tent. Campfires are encouraged, and often the crackle-pop of wood on the fire is the only noise in the evenings here. There may be no clubhouse or kid’s club but, apart from that, we’d say Tony is underselling the place. There’s quite a lot to do here; both on site and off it.

There’s a lake in the centre of one of the two camping fields which not only attracts wildlife, but also beckons you to hop in the rowing boat for an afternoon afloat. There are streams to paddle in and ropes to swing on and there’s a summerhouse with books and games for rainy days. Then, of course, there are the animals: Matilda, Bluebell and Rosie the miniature goats, Rodney and Del Boy the pigs, and the chickens and ducks that lay fresh eggs for your breakfast. And that’s not even counting the field mice, owls, herons, pheasants and badgers.

Off site it’s a ten-minute stroll to the local pub in Sticker, four miles to the coast, five miles to St Austell and eight miles to The Eden Project. But that’s not the half of it. The campsite is at the gateway to the Roseland Peninsula, a lovely part of the south Cornish coast. Most people that come here explore by biking along the nearby Pentewan Valley Trail or hiring the campsite’s sea kayak and heading for the beautiful coast around Gorran Haven and Charlestown.

Back on site after a day’s exploring and it’s back to basics for most of us but listen up – what’s that? A faint tinkle of bells and a very quiet whistle? In 2020 Pleasant Streams Farm introduced three spacious, kitted-out bell tents. Sleeping four comfortably in proper beds with bedding, they each have an outdoor covered kitchen which has a camping stove, cool box and all the equipment you’ll need. Bell tents are in a quiet, tucked-away corner by a stream with a rope swing while campers with their own tents are spread freestyle between two meadows. Campers can choose between a flat spot in a sunny field or a lake-side pitch where you can watch dragonflies dance over the water. If this is doing very little, we like it rather a lot.