The Jamaica Inn is a traditional inn on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in the UK, which was built as a coaching inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. Located just off the A30, near the middle of the moor close to the hamlet of Bolventor, it was originally used as a staging post for changing horses.[1] The 1,122 feet (342 m) high "Tuber" or "Two Barrows" hill, is close by.[2]
The inn was the setting for Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel Jamaica Inn,[3][4] about the nocturnal activities of a smuggling ring, "portraying a hidden world as a place of tense excitement and claustrophobia of real peril and thrill."[5] In the novel, it was transformed into a rendezvous and warehouse for smuggling that was solely the home of the landlord and his wife.[6] The novel has been adapted into various media, most famously an eponymous 1939 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However, the inn itself has never actually been used as a filming location.[3]
The inn is also referenced in "Jamaica Inn", a song by Tori Amos from her album The Beekeeper (2005), written while she was driving along the cliffs in Cornwall, and inspired by the legend she had heard of the inn.
History[]
Though an inn has stood on the main road (modern A30, before the bypass was built) through the hamlet since 1547, the current building dates from 1750. It was extended in 1778 with a coach house, stables and a tack room assembled in an L-shaped fashion. It is often commonly thought that the inn takes its name from the smugglers who smuggled rum into the country from Jamaica and stored it at the inn. However, the name of the inn is actually said to derive from the important local Trelawney family of landowners, of which two family members served as Governors of Jamaica in the 18th century.[13]
The inn became a smugglers' stopping point while they used approximately 100 secret routes to move around their contraband.[14] Originally, the halfway house was alone on this part of the moor but later a church, parsonage, and school were added by the proprietor of the land, Mr. Kodd, to satisfy the area's residents.[2]
According to narrated story, gangs of wreckers operated on the coast of Cornwall during early 19th century. Cornwall has been very aptly described as the "haven of smugglers" in view of its topographic features of "rocky coves, sheltered bays, tumultuous waves and wild and untenanted landscapes".[5] The wreckers ensnared ships to this coast line by tricking them with use of lights which they purposefully installed on the shores of the coast. Once the ships foundered on the rocky coast they were looted by the wreckers.[6]
By 1847, Francis Rodd of Trebartha Hall, who had been High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1845, was building a chapel at Bolventor to accommodate those who lived in the Jamaica Inn area.[15] In 1865, Murray wrote that the inn was frequented in the winter by sportsmen and offered only rudimentary accommodations.[9]
The current building still includes the extension of a coach house, stables and a tack room added in 1778. The inn was owned for a period by the novelist Alistair MacLean[16] and it has been listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England since 23 November 1988.[1]
In March 2022, the inn announced that fox hunts, including the East Cornwall Hunt and the Beaufort Hunt, were banned from its premises, with Allen Jackson, the inn's owner, saying, "We have always lost money because some people won’t come here because of the association with hunts. There are no pluses, all we get is minuses. They never spent any money here – they never came in."[17]
In August 2022, the hotel was acquired by The Coaching Inn Group, a national operator of distinctive coaching inns and destination venues.
Haunted[]
According legends from Jamaica Inn is now open to ghost hunters both for weekends and late night investigations! Dates are listed under the Ghost Hunts tab above. Ring us to book your Ghost Hunt on 01566 86250 - and to book a room if you're brave enough to stay!
For years there have been stories of happenings at the Inn. Many people who have stayed have reported strange incidents occurring at night. Popular TV programme ‘Most Haunted’ featured Jamaica Inn in what they said was one of the spookiest episodes they had ever recorded! The Ghost Society have made in-depth investigations and compiled a report based on their findings. The areas of substantial interest to the investigation were, The Smugglers’ Bar, The Stable Bar (now the museum), upstairs in the old bedrooms, and the rear restaurant/gift shop area.
During the early 1900s the Inn was used as a temperance house, but there have always been spirits of a different kind at Jamaica Inn. Previous managers of Jamaica Inn have heard conversations uttered in a foreign tongue. Some have suggested this ‘foreign’ language could in fact be old Cornish.
On a moonlit night, when all is still, the sound of horses' hooves and the metal rims of wheels turning on the rough cobbles can be heard in the courtyard. Yet there is nothing to be seen! Who can explain the uneasy footsteps heard pacing the corridors in the dead of night? Who is the strange man in a tricorne hat and cloak who appears and then walks through solid doors?5