In May half term (end of May) we spent another couple of days in Cornwall as we have been doing this for years now. We celebrate my daughter’s birthday then, so when the weather is nice in spring time, Cornwall is an absolute beaut. Earlier, we used to stay close to the county border in Saltash and used to stay in a place called China Fleet Resort, primarily for golf. But for a while we have not been able to book the larger chalets with 2 proper bathrooms – so we wanted to find an alternative.

For us, when we go for a UK getaway, it’s important that the place is

• dog-friendly, so we can take Luca with us
• there are 2 proper bedrooms and one of them isn’t a couch in the living room
• there’s a spa or pool so the children can use it in case of terrible weather
• decent internet because we do a few hours work here and there as we need to
• it’s a short drive (under an hour) to at least 4 days’ worth of day-outs
• self-catering is possible because we like to spend every other night in after being out all day exploring

This is exactly why we chose Retallack Resort for this Cornwall visit. We spent 5 days at Retallack and thoroughly enjoyed it.

About Retallack Resort

Retallack Resort is part of Away Resorts in North Cornwall countryside. They sell holiday homes and also rent them out for the owners, there are 25 resorts currently in the UK.

At Retallack Resort, you can book purpose-built luxury barn accommodation. Not at all a barn, just the wooden facade makes it look like a barn, it is in fact a very modern wooden chalet.

What is the address of Retallack Resort?

Winnards Perch, St Columb Major, Cornwall, TR9 6DE

Parking is available on the sight, in front of the individual barns.

What are the different accommodations in Retallack Resort?

• Apartments (1-2 bedrooms)
• Barn style luxury lodge (2-6 bedrooms)
• Barnhouse (2-3 bedrooms) 
• Roof terrace luxury lodge (4 bedrooms) – this is what we stayed in, although ours had 2 bedrooms only
• The Lakehouse (4-6 bedrooms)

How much Retallack Resort cost?

Weekend breaks for 3 nights start at £429 and 4 nights just under £500. Depending on the time of the year and availability – these are 2026 rates.

Review: What we thought about Retallack Resort

Location

For us, the location was perfect, in fact, better than anywhere else we stayed in Cornwall. Firstly, it’s within less than an hour’s drive to some of Cornwall’s most stunning beaches, cute seaside towns, Newquay the Cornish surf capital, the Eden Project, the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. It made an ideal base for exploring the best of Cornwall.

Very near, only a few minutes drive away, there is Screech Owl Sanctuary (we have visited this during our stay and immensely enjoyed it!), the picturesque fishing village, Padstow is also about 15 minutes drive. There’s also a golf course, which my husband played and said it was nice.

The resort grounds

Exploring the resort grounds was a real joy for me. As someone who cares a lot about the environment and the natural world (which is why I love visiting Cornwall), I spent quite a few hours walking the grounds of the Retallack Resort, which is not a small area! Like I said, we have visited in late spring so nature was in full bloom. 

I especially enjoyed seeing wildflower meadows and regenerative planting with with native and wild flowers and plants. They were buzzing too, alive with pollinators and insects. It was a delight to see this effort, so important these days when insect numbers are declining at an alarming rate.

We walked around the lake and spotted ducks as well as other wild animals. There was a a pheasant visiting a certain barn daily and we spotted him a few times.

From our barn we had a wonderful view (our barn was located on the Hillside part of the resort, overlooking the Meadow and Lakeside parts. This was beautiful at all times, but we also had full moon during our stay which was really special, looking at the full moon from the hot tub!

Our barn

We stayed in number 45 barn, Hillside

To be honest, we have been upgraded for some reason (nice, thank you!) and we were not quite sure what exactly we are getting, we only knew that we’ll have a hot tub as an extra. I still don’t know what category we stayed in in the end, to be honest, but we had a hot tub.

Our barn was on the hillside, so it was far rom the resort hub, but we found the shortcuts based on the resort map provided by the reception staff at check in. Still, about 10-15 minutes walk it took us to walk to the pool and main building. We booked a dog friendly barn, it had no special anything, like barrier or gate, but our dog is quite well behaved, he doesn’t bark at other dogs, let alone start to chase them and just sat outside with us on the patio.

We were all super impressed with the barn. It was was spotless, spacious and well equipped. We had two double bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. The furniture, fittings and design is a mix of modern in case of the bedrooms and the bathroom is finished with heritage sinks and metro tiles. A bit of wear and tear, but nothing major. The only thing was that we were expecting shower gel and shampoo dispensers mounted to the shower wall – but we just received a small guest soap. And just a roll of toilet paper – but no biggie, we bought these. The master bedroom was a decent size, the other double room was a bit small – but it was adequate for the children to share it. The beds and pillows were really comfortable. Towels were provided but not changed. We used the washing machine that was in a little utility cupboard in the barn .

The living room, dining area and kitchen were all in the same living space and whilst it sounds a lot in the same space, the size of it was really generous. The living room really had the had the wow factor when we walked in: the barn had been made up very well for our arrival including laying the table which was very welcoming. All in all, it was all better than we expected from the website. The kitchen had every we needed, including a dishwasher. 

The patio is big, complete with garden furniture and a small table and a hot tub! This deck outside had really beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and overlooking the resort and thanks to the sunny weather we had our morning coffees out there. 

The barn was quite hot during our stay because we were there during a heat wave, the heat gets trapped in the barn and heats up easily because of the large window panels between the living room and the patio. We kept the big sliding door open most of the time to get cooler air in.

The swimming pool

Swimming pool great, it wasn’t busy (no advance slot booking was required) but it was very very hot just to sit there, as I didn’t want to use the pool, just watch the kids. They were allowed to dive and fool around a bit. At the pool reception we asked for pool towels and they were provided at no charge. There is a spa and you can book beauty treatments and gym too, but we didn’t try these.

Amenities 

There is a little shop on site, which we used. There is a restaurant and a cafe as well, but we didn’t use them: The Lookout Bar and Eatery and the Beach Cafe. We were out and about most of the time and we made dinner in the barn.

There is a clubhouse and lots for the kids, an activity every afternoon/evening led by staff. We tried the slime making workshop, which my daughter really enjoyed. It was £25 or thereabouts, and it was an hour long activity. The parents though had to stay with the kids during the activity. Outside the clubhouse there is a nice playground and a little arcade room as well. There is also an adventure playground separately.

Water sports

Although in the end we didn’t try any of it there is Cornwall’s only FlowRider, they use this simulator for learning to surf and practice as well, they have experienced instructors. We watched it for a while, seems good fun. Then there is wakeboarding with or without instructors, and an aqua park too (on the day we wanted to use it, it was closed  – this was a Friday, so maybe they only opened it for the weekend – but the race course looked good.

Would we go back to Retallack?

Yes, definitely. It’s a good spot for having day outs around Cornwall. You do need a car of course, but it would be difficult without a car anyway when staying in Cornwall. All in all we found the barn fab, really enjoyed the hot tub in the evenings and everything was comfortable.

And we met friendly cats at the resort!