In Victorian times, Bude was a popular seaside resort and many of the Victorian buildings remain. Possibly inspired by the sandstone being quarried in Bude and heated in lime kilns, the Victorian inventor who invented limelight built his home here (grandly named Bude Castle) which is now a heritage centre.
In more recent times, Bude has become famous for its Jazz Festival in August. There is a Tourist Information Centre in the main car park.
Whilst most of Devon and Cornwall are slate, the rocks around Bude are sandstone. From the coast path around Bude, the strata in the rocks are clearly visible along the coastline and you can see where they were folded by the continental plate collisions that gave rise to the tors of Bodmin Moor. Where the upended rock layers have been eroded by the sea, series of ridges have been formed such as at the sides of the beaches at Widemouth and Sandymouth creating many rockpools.
The sandstone around Bude was used as a source of lime to improve the fertility of the acid soils around Bodmin Moor. Bude Canal was built to carry lime inland and the original canal system spanned 35 miles. This included "inclined planes" (hills in a canal!) where canal boats were hauled uphill using waterwheels or in one instance VERY large buckets of water. Today, 2 miles of canal remain filled with water at Bude. The canal is popular with fisherman as it's one of the few places in Cornwall you can catch coarse fish. It's also a nice spot for a leisurely walk. You can pick up some leaflets (70p) from Tintagel Visitor Centre for "Bude Canal trails" - some circular walks with information about the history.
There are a number of nature reserves around Bude:
- The undisturbed history of Millook Valley woods (now owned by the Woodland Trust) and location in a sparsely populated area of the north Cornish coast offers visitors a sense of stepping back in time. The broad-leaved woodland is criss-crossed by footpaths with some great views over the valley. There are bluebells in Spring and loads of blackberries and sloes in Autumn. Other interesting occupants include dormice, otters and smooth snakes. It is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, an Ancient Woodland Site and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
- Bude marshes is the fourth largest area of reed in the county and provides valuable habitat for wintering migrant and breeding birds.
- Maer Lake - Owned jointly between the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Cornwall Birdwatching and Preservation Society - 25 acres of wetland meadow with open water provides an internationally acknowledged resting and feeding site for migrating birds. Note there is no access inside the reserve - viewing is strictly only from the private road above the reserve.
- Lower Tamar Lake (South West Lakes Trust) was built by the Bude Canal Company in 1823 to act as the feeder reservoir for the Bude Canal System. Good for waterfowl and there is a bird hide here. A pair of Great Crested Grebe usually breed on the lake.
- Phillips Point (Cornwall Wildlife Trust) is a small reserve off the Widemouth to Bude coast road with magnificent vertical and slumping high cliffs with spectacular views to Hartland Point and Widemouth. A good spot for seals. Very close by is Upton Meadow (also Cornwall Wildlife Trust) - a small reserve on side of a steep valley above a small stream, alongside which a small woodland grows
- Marsland Valley (Cornwall Wildlife Trust) - two large, steep-sided valleys with mixed oak woodland, bracken slopes, traditional hay meadows, wildflower meadows and coastline covering over 450 acres.
- Lower Lewdon (Cornwall Wildlife Trust) - an 11 acre mosaic of culm grassland and woodland, crisscrossed with rides and paths containing the pretty, blue-flowered devil's-bit scabious, an essential food plant for the larvae of the rare marsh fritillary butterfly.
- Greena Moor near Week St Mary (Cornwall Wildlife Trust) - culm grassland with some broadleaved woodland, scrub and streams. Jointly owned with Plantlife.