Tregenna sits high on the hill above St Ives, at the top of a drive that climbs away from the harbour and the crowds until suddenly there is a castle in front of you and the whole of St Ives Bay behind. It was built in 1774 from local granite for the Stephens family, and it still wears its 18th-century fancy dress well: four castellated turrets, and an original glazed skylight carrying the family coat of arms that you can stand under today.
The Stephens line ended in 1867 and the castle was sold to the Bolitho family, local bankers, in 1871. Then came the phase that shaped the building you see now — the Great Western Railway leased it in 1878, bought it outright in 1895 and set about making it the jewel in the crown of its hotels, adding function rooms, a restaurant and the grand hallway through to reception, with the West Wing finished in 1932. After a long spell in public and corporate hands it returned to family ownership in 1992, and it has been run as a resort ever since.
What that history has left behind is unusually useful for a wedding. There are 72 acres of grounds, a golf course, tennis courts and an indoor pool, and somewhere in the region of 150 places to sleep between the 98 hotel bedrooms and the self-catering houses that take anything from 2 to 10 people. Weddings run from just the two of you to a two-day celebration for as many as 250, with the Trelawney Room as the main licensed space indoors and a pavilion outside for couples who want the bay in the photographs. The kitchen is happy either way — a three-course wedding breakfast, a summer barbecue, afternoon tea, and in the evening a hog roast, a tower of cheese or a grazing table of puddings.
Where the band plays
The Trelawney Room does the heavy lifting: it is licensed for ceremonies, it seats a full wedding breakfast, and it is where the tables come out and the dance floor goes down once dinner is cleared. A room built to take 250 is a generous room for a band, and it rewards a bigger line-up — at that sort of number a four-piece can feel thin, while a band with horns and two vocalists will fill the space and pull people up off their chairs. There is a house dance floor and an entertainment licence, so a live band, a DJ or both is entirely normal here.
An evening with nobody leaving early
The great advantage of a resort is that the last train home is a bar on the ground floor. With that much accommodation on the estate, the usual mid-evening drift of guests towards taxis simply doesn’t happen, and a band playing its final set to a room that is still three-quarters full is a very different night from one playing to the stragglers. Do check the music finish time when you book so the set times can be built around it, and think about whether you want the evening to end in the room or spill out into the gardens with the lights of St Ives below.
Bands available in Cornwall and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Cornwall.
- Cornwall Wedding Bands
- Cornwall Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Cornwall
- Wedding DJs in Cornwall
- Corporate Entertainment in Cornwall
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.