England
Boscastle
A harbour in a cleft so narrow the sea turns sideways to enter.
The harbour hides up a zigzag inlet carved through slate cliffs so dark the water turns black in their shadow. Boscastle is a village the sea tried to destroy in 2004 — and that rebuilt itself with the same stubbornness that has kept it here for centuries.
The harbour entrance is invisible from the open sea, its S-shaped channel providing the natural protection smugglers exploited for centuries. In August 2004 more than seven inches of rain fell in a single afternoon, sending a wall of water through the village and wrecking over a hundred buildings; the reconstruction preserved its character while adding the flood defences you can trace along the rebuilt river. The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, settled here since 1960, keeps among the world's largest collections of witchcraft artefacts in a converted harbourside building, and Thomas Hardy courted his first wife Emma at the rectory in 1870 — an experience that became A Pair of Blue Eyes and shaped his feeling for this wild coast. The Coast Path climbs from the harbour mouth into some of Cornwall's emptiest clifftop miles.
Solo
The Coast Path north of Boscastle crosses some of Cornwall's least-developed clifftop scenery — the village is the starting point; the open coast begins at the harbour mouth.
Couple
The inlet, the witchcraft museum and the Hardy connection give the village layers that unfold across an afternoon, with cliff drama in either direction.
- The harbour entrance hides from the sea in a zigzag smugglers' channel.
- A world-class witchcraft collection occupies a converted harbour building.
- Flood marks from 2004 still trace a village that refused to be erased.
- The Coast Path leaves the harbour mouth for miles without another settlement.
A Cornish cream tea overlooking the harbour the flood almost erased.
Hevva cake from the bakery — a dense fruited slab unique to Cornwall.
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