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Family yoga on a chilly Cornish beach? Surprisingly, it works

Yoga on a beach is an entirely different event - JAY WILLIAMS
Yoga on a beach is an entirely different event - JAY WILLIAMS

Booking a holiday cottage threatens mundanity: it will be your domestic life, just with different views and fewer condiments in the fridge. These days, while the troubles of a bare cupboard remain, self-catering properties come with a range of bookable extras - from private chefs to in-house beauty treatments - elevating the humble cottage to a treat.

The add-on that caught my eye was this: a family yoga lesson on the beach. How collegial. How wholesome. How - wait... in Cornwall? In early spring?

It seemed like a good way to bring the family together. The first thing my son learnt when he started at primary school wasn’t elementary phonics or his number bonds to 10. No, it was as a single word: Namaste. These days, they use yoga for crowd control in schools: each morning as kids arrive, they do their morning exercises with a peppy video. My daughter, in Year 2, already has a few years of tree pose under her belt. They love the focus yoga demands, and the challenge of balancing.

Sally Peck family editor Leeward House St Agnes - Credit: Jay Williams
The Pecks at Leeward House, St Agnes Credit: Jay Williams

Yoga has crept its way into my marriage, too. For the past year my husband, Giles, and I have been trudging to Soho together once a week for an hour of midday health. Where before our dates invariably involved wine, this has been a positive move in the direction of self-care, though we often find our failure to focus and balance rather humiliating.

But yoga on a beach is an entirely different event. A world away from the stillness of a bright studio, the wilds of the West Country offer a new challenge to a practice, particularly at Trevaunance Cove, on Cornwall’s rocky northern coast, halfway between Newquay and St Ives, where the waves crash with spectacular force and the tide rises faster than you can say downward dog.

And yoga on a Cornish beach is the booking of a gambler - you never quite know what the weather will bring. Still, with a cottage reserved, I wanted an activity that would challenge us to spend time - if only an hour - honing mind, body and spirit together.

As my dog pranced around us, and a dozen salty surfers took their chances in the waves a few yards away, we gathered in front of our instructor, Helen Clare.

I had arrived with scepticism. It’s a rare activity that allows people aged four to 44 to engage on an equal plane, particularly in the realm of sport. But Clare is a former primary school teacher and can engage a child and correct an adult’s errant pose all in the same sentence. She is trained in Vinyasa flow, in which you move smoothly from one posture to another. This probably won’t work for most families unless they’re quite experienced - you need to anticipate what’s coming next - but Clare smoothly adapted our class as she observed our levels of experience.

The world's 50 greatest family adventures
The world's 50 greatest family adventures

She led us through tree, graduating from foot resting on ankle, to higher on the leg. We took a dragon pose, which involved a heavy vocalised lion breath out; the children outdid the waves in volume. It was interesting - humbling - to watch our children take their balance for granted, and tumble happily into the sand, while Giles and I exerted a bit more angry-faced effort to stay upright.

We set up towels at first, but that didn’t work: the water soaked through in seconds. So we took to the sand, which is superior to the rigid floors of most studios: my knees, during cat-cow, got wet, but they were pain-free.

In lieu of shavasana, the quiet meditation period at the end of a typical yoga class - impossible with the ambient noise and distractions - Clare asked a simple but rare question: “Think of something you’re really great at”’ and, a bit later, “Think of something you’re really lucky in”.

Family yoga | Why it's a great holiday activity
Family yoga | Why it's a great holiday activity

I’m not “great” at yoga - but I love it. And I’m awfully lucky to share that with my family. And if the dramatic backdrop - with the towering cliffs, looming abandoned mines, and the crashing waves - isn’t a recipe for a relaxation class, it is the most natural place in the world to meditate on family, fitness and bonding.

At the beginning of many yoga classes, teachers ask students to set an intention for the class - often you dedicate your practice to someone. Why don’t we do that for holidays? Setting the intention of spending at least an hour focused and together changed our trip.

Sally Peck Family Editor Cornwall - Credit: Jay Williams
"It's the most natural place in the world to meditate on family, fitness and bonding" Credit: Jay Williams

The team spirit honed on the beach carried over to the next morning when, in a fit of ambition, we took an unprecedented six-mile hike along the cliffs between St Agnes and Porthtowan. Buoyed by the limbering up in yoga the day before, everyone skipped along with a level of happiness and enthusiasm usually seen just in our labrador - all it took was a bit of downward dog.

The Pecks stayed at Leeward House, a three-bedroom glass and wood box with a hot tub set in woodlands 600 meters above Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes. A seven-night stay costs from £1,165 for up to seven guests through Beach Retreats (beachretreats.co.uk). Yoga sessions with Helen Clare from £60 for an hour-long class.