The steep-sided valley of the river Valency forms a sheltered natural harbour at Boscastle. The steep valley acted as a funnel for the dramatic flood in 2004 that put Boscastle on (and nearly wiped it off) the map which is thought to have been caused by the Brown Willy effect.
The name Boscastle is derived from Bottreaux Castle, the 12th century fortress of the de Botterells, of which little now remains. If you walk up the one way street (Old Road), past the post office and follow a sign post just past this on the left you can go up a path to the old castle site which is at least a good view point over the village and harbour.
There is a large car park with toilets, some shops and several pubs and a cafe on the harbour in a former pilchard cellar. Boscastle's 50 year old Museum of Witchcraft is the largest of its kind in the world. It was badly damaged by the flood in 2004 but has been fully restored.
Boscastle has 3 pubs, each with a lot of character:
- The Cobweb Inn, opposite the car park - previously a wine cellar and flour store dating from the late 1600s, it has traditionally always had cobwebs hung from the roof beams. Apparently this was thought to keep flies off stored wines and spirits.
- The Wellington Hotel (aka "the welly") is the old village coaching inn, across the road from the Harbour. Some parts of the building are 4 centuries old, but most dates from 1853 when travellers to the area increased. It was once called the Bos Castle Hotel, but was renamed on the death of Duke Wellington in 1852. It has Folk music on wednesday nights
- The Napoleon Inn is Boscastle's oldest pub (built in the 16th Century) and is set up on the hill at the back of Boscastle. It was a recruiting office during the Napoleonic wars. The landlord joined up with Wellington to go to Waterloo and so was called 'Napoleon man' on his return - hence the name of his pub.
There are plenty of good walks around Boscastle:
- You can walk along right side of the harbour past the witches museum along the path to the headland where there are excellent views of the harbour and back up the valley.
- The tourist info centre next to the Harbour has a leaflet (for £1) for a 3.5 mile "village trail" which has lots of information about the history of the village.
- You can walk up the river valency through the woods to Minster Church (about half an hour). You can walk down the back roads from Minster Church into Boscastle to create a circular walk of about an hour and a half (assuming you stop for a bit to look at Minster Church). The tourist info centre also has a leaflet (70p) describing this walk with lots of good info about the history and wildlife.
- If you walk along the left side of the harbour you can walk up onto the coast path to Willapark lookout. You can create a circular walk of about an hour by going inland across Forrabury Common to Forrabury Church and back down into Boscastle (assuming you stop for a cup of tea in Forrabury Church).
- The tourist info centre has a couple of excellent leaflets (50 or 60p) for fairly substantial circular walks (6-8 miles) around Boscastle. As with the others, they have some interesting information about the history of places along the route.
Boscastle has some beautiful old churches. There are seven in the parish, two of which are in Boscastle itself. The four which feature in the walks from the tourist info centre are:
- Minster (St Merthiana's) Church set in Minster Wood - an ancient woodland in the Valency valley which has had continuous woodland cover for at least 400 years. The religious site dates back 1500 years to Celtic times and parts of the church there today date back to 1150. It was originally known as 'Tolcarne', which means 'rock chapel'. The church was restored twice after falling into disrepair so there are some features that date back to the Tudor period and others to Victorian times. In early spring it is surrounded by a carpet of daffodils. Look out for the mysterious carved scissors on the tower wall. No one knows why they're there! (more info)
- Forrabury (St. Symphorian's) Church on Forrabury Common near the cliffs was originally built over 900 years ago. In Victorian times the main part of the church was rebuilt and extended significantly but the original Norman tower was left intact. There's tea and coffee and a kettle available in the church for thirsty visitors (more info). Forrabury Common is divided into 42 'stitches' - an ancient Celtic form of land tenure called 'Stitch Meal' - where long, curving plots of land with 1-2 feet of grass in between, are planted with different crops. This site has more information. The stitches are most visible between late March and late September. Over the winter, the Common is grazed. You can reach the stitches via the coast path from Boscastle, or the path from Forrabury church.
- St Juliot's Church is signposted on the right from the road from Boscastle to Crackington. It is a beautiful location with its door facing out across the valley. It was renovated by the author Thomas Hardy (whose novel "A Pair of Blue Eyes" describes the area).
- St Michael & All Angels in Lesnewth ('New Court') is a little further out from Boscastle, but is in a lovely location, just next to a deep-sided stream, marked by an ancient Celtic wayside cross. The original Saxon church was said to be built here in the dip to hide it from marauding Vikings at sea - but they found and sacked it nonetheless. Sadly little remains of the Norman church that followed; the present church is mostly Victorian, dominated by an impressively tall 15th century tower. On one of the walls inside is a nicely inscribed slate memorial, with a carved coat of arms.
More info
- Satellite map of Boscastle
- The Book of Boscastle - an online book about the history of Boscastle
- Wikipedia pages on Boscastle and its churches
- Boscastle village website