Boscastle

Boscastle came to prominence in August 2004 as a result of the terrible floods that devastated this quiet fishing village. Four years later a £10m flood defence scheme was officially opened in the village. The recovery was remarkable and the damage done no longer evident. Designated an Area of Outstanding Beauty, the National Trust own and care for this beautiful medieval harbour and surrounding coastline. Here too a lovely valley heads inland, a path follows a fast flowing burbling stream which leads to several hidden churches allowing you to discover the little known connection between North Cornwall and Thomas Hardy. Pentargon Waterfall is featured in Hardy’s novel A Pair of Blue Eyes.

The straggling village grew up around the harbour, and takes its name from, the now demolished Bottreaux Castle built by the de Botterell family in Norman times. The picturesque inlet, between the cliffs, is the only natural harbour between Hartland Point and Padstow and is formed by the rivers Valency and Jordan. The renowned Elizabethan seafarer, Sir Richard Grenville, built the harbour’s inner jetty in 1584, at a time when the village was prospering as a fishing, grain and slate port.  The outer jetty, or breakwater, dates from the 19th century, when Boscastle had grown to become a bustling commercial port handling coal, timber, slate and china clay.  Because of the dangerous harbour entrance, ships had to be ‘hobbled’ (towed) in by boats manned by eight oarsmen, and centred in the channel by gangs of men pulling on ropes.

The 2004 floods took their toll on Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft, an intelligent, comprehensive and non-gimmicky account of witchcraft throughout the ages; when you visit look out for the green marker on the right hand door, it shows the level the flood water reached. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of witchcraft-related books, artefacts and regalia and was originally opened in 1951 by Cecil Williamson on the Isle of Man. It is said that Williamson knew so much about witchcraft and the occult that his knowledge helped Britain’s war efforts during World War II, as some of the leading Nazis were steeped in the occult.

Penally Point on the northern side of the harbour is home to the Devil’s Bellows – a blow-hole that occasionally shoots out plumes of water at low tide when there is enough swell running.