Jamaica Inn, 18th-century coaching inn in Altarnun, England
Jamaica Inn is a coaching inn on Bodmin Moor featuring granite walls, slate roofs, and multiple chimneys that reflect traditional Cornish building style from the 1750s. The building now houses a restaurant serving local dishes, a maritime museum displaying smuggling artifacts, and rooms for overnight guests.
The building was constructed as a stopover for horse-drawn coaches traveling between Launceston and Bodmin during the Georgian period. By the 1800s, it had become involved in moving contraband goods inland from Cornwall's coastal areas.
The inn inspired Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel, which later became a Hitchcock film and BBC adaptation. This literary connection has shaped how visitors see the place today, blending fiction with the real history of the building.
The inn functions as a restaurant, museum, and lodging all in one location, so you can explore different aspects of the place in a single visit. It sits on open moorland where weather can change quickly, so dress in layers.
The building led a double life in the 1800s, operating openly as a coaching inn while secretly serving as a distribution hub for contraband from the coast. This hidden chapter only emerged later through local records and stories passed down through generations.
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