Jamaica Inn

OVERVIEW

A slate-hung coaching inn at Bolventor beside the A30 in the centre of Bodmin Moor, built in 1750 as a staging post for changing horses and with a real history of smuggled goods passing through it. Du Maurier stayed in 1930 and published Jamaica Inn in 1936; the wreckers of the novel are FICTION and the inn says so — there is no evidence Cornish wreckers ever lured ships with lights. The inn runs a smuggling museum and a paranormal programme with its own investigators.

HISTORY

The inn's own history is of moorland travel, smuggling and the turnpike; its fame is du Maurier's, and Hitchcock's 1939 film.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The inn's tradition names a stranger who left his ale on the bar, went outside and was found murdered on the moor next morning, and is seen in the bar; footsteps in the corridors, horses and carts in the empty yard, children's voices. Rooms 4, 5 and 6 and the old stable are the ones the inn's team points to; Most Haunted filmed here. The venue tells the stories and has an interest in them.

VISITING

Open as a pub, restaurant and hotel; museum by ticket; ghost hunts by booking.