Professor Alice Roberts describes her favourite spot for seaside holidays in the South West, plus how the BBC TV series Coast prompted a journey of discovery around the Scottish islands. Interview: Alex Reece
I have travelled widely, both with work and with my family, but I keep gravitating back to the North Devon and North Cornwall coasts. I spent Easter in St Agnes, and that is one of my favourite places.
I really like St Agnes itself, and it’s the home of Surfers Against Sewage, so I always pop in to see them when I’m down there. I’m a great supporter of their campaigns to clean up our seas. There is also a fantastic campsite on the west side of St Agnes Beacon, and a wonderful coast path walk that takes in some of the old tin mines. And then there are beautiful little beaches like Chapel Porth and Porthtowan – both of those are great for surfing.
Something I really like to do when we’re camping is cooking outdoors. So we foraged mussels from Godrevy Beach. They were well over 5cm, the smallest they should be if you’re picking mussels, and took them home and cooked them for tea. I also made a salad out of local wild garlic, which is called three-cornered garlic or three-cornered leek.
I think one of the things that Coast, the BBC series, did for me was really open my eyes to some of the fantastic landscapes around Britain that I hadn’t thought of visiting. I’m making my way gradually around the islands of West Scotland – I spent last summer visiting places like Arran, which I hadn’t been to before, and is absolutely gorgeous.
For details of Alice’s book Tamed (£20, Hutchinson, published October 2017). alice-roberts.co.uk.
