It’s hard to find vegan campsites, and engage in truly plant based diet while camping, but Mount Pleasant Eco Park have got you! They offer a delicious daily plant-based menu, so you can avoid the dreaded repetitive meat loaded BBQ!
We’re life-long campers and every year we hanker after a camping trip when summer wanderlust is in the air. With our glamping business commitments we don’t get much time to go for long periods in the school holidays. Luckily we have a great vegan campsite close to St Agnes, making it easy to chuck a few camping essentials in the car, and head for a spontaneous, healthy, over-night adventure. There is nothing like waking up in nature and eating well to rejuvenate your soul, albeit briefly.
So continuing our love affair with campsites on the North Coast of Cornwall, I thought I’d share our recent Glamping stay at Mount Pleasant Eco Park. This is my go-to vegan campsite, where you can enjoy healthy plant based foods and come home feeling virtuous. We all know campsite BBQ's can get a little repetitive if you stick to sausages and burgers!
Mount Pleasant Eco Park is all about ‘proper’ camping in a beautiful meadow, lighting fires, switching off from modern life and becoming absorbed by their eco-focused vision. It's a laid back alternative to the busier coastal sites, and holiday parks, popular on the North Cornish coast.
The camping itself is pretty basic, rolling fields facing the sea, large spacious pitches, and epic sunsets, with a casual atmosphere. But there are plenty of hot showers and toilets (some composting, some flushing). Also some glamping hut options available to hire – with beds (but no bedding).
The Eco Park's wild camping landscape is the result of a conservation and community project. Bringing life back to the land, whilst creating a positive impact and community resource, and creating a sustainable space. All set within 42 acres of organic farmland, they also offer a unique glamping wedding venue, an organic growing space and a home to Tropical Pressure Festival every July.
The bonus point of the Eco Park is that you can wonder over to the many communal spaces, the rustic bar in the atrium, workspaces, yoga spaces, craft fairs, and enjoy live music nights. The Eco Park is a hotspot for world music gigs and musicians. It’s a real goodie for a group camping too, and surfing trips. With plenty to do when you get back to the campsite after a day at the ocean. Just a 15-minute walk down along the old mining footpath, with two decent pubs on the way!
Camping for me has always been about the natural, plant based, eating component, creating a workable kitchen in the great outdoors. Revelling in my own self-sufficiency, sipping the best plant based tea out of a rustic enamel cup in the morning. But when you're only camping for a couple of nights, sometimes it can be easier to pack light and eat on the go, or out.
The great thing about the Eco Park is you can literally buy all of your vegan meals there, but they also allow campfires, if you do want to burn a veggie sausage!
The on-site restaurant, run by Canteen Cornwall, serves a daily changing menu of healthy plant-based and vegan breakfasts, lunches and dinners, using plant ingredients from the Eco Park organic allotment. Literally wheeled over every day. They chalk up the menus on a blackboard each morning, making the Eco Park a perfect, easy camping location when you don’t fancy packing the pantry, or going out in the evenings. Proprietor and chef, Ben Quinn, as featured on Andi Oliver's Fabulous Feasts (episode 1) has set up a year-round restaurant/Canteen at the Eco Park, with another restaurant in Mount Hawk (just a mile way). In both venues you can expect their trademark vegan flavours, recipes made with plenty of lentils and peas, wood-fired veggies, smoked sauces, burnt squashes, zingy salsas verde's laden with fresh organic herbs. With delicious handmade flatbreads to soak up all the plant goodness! With hot beverages from range of natural Cornish food suppliers, such as Wild Cornish Tea and Yallah.
If you haven't already, you can read more about our recommended foodie campsites here
So who’s in..
Tents, Campervans (with or without hook-up). Glampers - see our hire options for pre-pitched Bell Tent Glamping at the Eco Park, and a ‘Wild Walkers’ area for backpackers. Plant-based food lovers and vegan campers.
Space
Spread over two large fields, surrounded by countryside and complete with a footpath to the beach.
Views
Sea, rolling Cornish countryside or views across to Tywarnhayle Mine.
Shower and toilet situation
Shower blocks, mains water toilets and compost toilets, washroom with sinks, electric and mirror, washing up sink
Fires?
Yes, campfires are encouraged in the cob courtyard and fire pits and barbecues are welcome, as long as they are kept off the grass. There is firewood for sale in the reception area.
Glamping
We offer pre-pitched Bell Tent hire to the Eco Park. So if you want an effortless camping experience, giving you time to fully enjoy Porthtowan and it’s surrounding areas, simply pack your bag and we'll do the rest!
Prices
Pitch fees range from £20 per/pitch low season to £28 per/pitch high season. Electric pitches are £38 high season.
Where is it located?
Mount Pleasant Eco Park is located at my favourite Cornish surf villages, Porthowan, which is a 15 minute drive from Truro, or a 30-minute drive from Newquay. Truro is a great transport hub, with trains hourly from London. Newquay is connected to the rest of the country by air, with flights to London, Manchester, Newcastle. Also, Dublin, Scotland, Spain and Portugal.
Bonus points
Coastal Trail Cycle Hire on-site, plug sockets for charging, freezer for ice blocks, and well behaved dogs allowed! Healthy vegan and plant based food on site.
Conclusion
As it’s pretty much impossible to find vegan campsites, and engage in truly wild camping in Cornwall, but the Eco Park will offer you the ‘wild’ vibe with the virtues of a healthy plant-based kitchen. With warm showers, flushing loos, and a handy bars. It's a laid back alternative to the busier coastal sites popular on the North Cornish coast.
