The Great Cottage Boutique Sandcastle Competition!

This summer, we invite kings, queens, princes, and princesses to show off their coastal castles, pretty palaces, and formidable fortresses, as we launch The Great Cottage Boutique Sandcastle Competition!

We’re on a mission to find the best beachside construction engineers around, with the lucky winners scooping up a choice of great prizes to inspire and fuel future beach builds.

The winner can claim their choice of:

• A selection of vouchers from our favourite local restaurants and lifestyle stores, to the value of £250. We can tailor this prize option to suit the winning family but it could include money off at Hub Box, Atlantic Blankets, St Ives Co., St Ives Bookseller, St Ives Surf School, Beer & Bird, Paradise Park and St Ives Brewery.
• OR a £250 voucher to spend on your next break with The Cottage Boutique. Choose from over 60 properties in St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant, from beachside apartments to country cottages.

To enter, simply build your sandcastle, take a picture and tag #cottageboutiquecastles in an Instagram or Facebook post (make sure you’re following our accounts too!) 

You’ll be entered automatically but we’re keen to hear the story behind your creation. Who built it and where? Who was the foreman and who actually did the hard graft? Who brought the snacks? Did the dog help? Do moats ever work?

We’ll be appointing an independent expert judge (more on that soon!) but suffice to say that the more you can capture our imagination the better chance you’ll have of winning this great prize. We’re accepting a wide interpretation of ‘castle’ – forts, cottages, towns, lighthouses, skyscrapers – all will be considered especially if there’s a great story behind its creation. 

Here in St Ives, sandcastle building is a rite of passage of every summer holiday, along with poking about in rockpools, the lunchtime pasty run, beach sunsets and bumbling home through winding lanes with your beach gear in tow, ready to do it all again the next day. So, if you haven’t experienced a Cottage Boutique getaway yet, this could be your golden opportunity!

Judging takes place at the end of the summer – good luck!