Jamaica Inn
On the bleak heart of Bodmin Moor stands a coaching inn once famous for smugglers. A novelist made it legendary, and guests still hear footsteps in the night.
What was reported
Jamaica Inn, built in 1750 on the road across Bodmin Moor, was a stopping place for travellers and, according to local lore, a base for smugglers moving contraband inland from the Cornish coast. In 1930, the writer Daphne du Maurier stayed there after getting lost on the moor in fog, and her 1936 novel Jamaica Inn made it famous.
Guests and staff have told of footsteps in the corridors at night, the sound of horses' hooves and wheels in the courtyard, and a man seen sitting on the wall outside.
Explanations offered
The inn's real history of moorland travel and smuggling, and its role in a famous novel, make it a natural home for stories. It's still a working inn and has a museum of smuggling.
- When
- Built in 1750
- Where
- Bolventor, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Guests, staff and a famous novelist
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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