Having fallen unreservedly in love with the West Cornish cliffs during my visit to Tintagel, I knew I had to get myself back there at least once before I left. So, lured by the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, I made bookings in Boscastle.
Now, say ‘Boscastle’ to any Brit and, though Boscastle ought to be known for its steep Cornish cliffs, jade water, medieval harbor, rapturously beautiful natural landscape, and sheer bloody inaccessibility, their answer will probably be: “Isn’t that the place that flooded?”
In 2004, due to heavy rains and a quirk of the geography, a huge quantity of water came funneling between Boscastle’s hills, carrying 75 cars and six buildings into the harbor:
The flood was so sudden that it sent locals and baffled tourists scrambling onto roofs or up trees. A fleet of helicopters rescued 150 people from high places that day. Miraculously, no one was killed, but the town was nearly completely destroyed. They were dredging cars out of the harbor for years.
An entire wall in the Tourist Information Center is dedicated to images of the flood and its aftermath. Boscastle is extremely proud of its successful recovery. And it deserves to be—it’s gorgeous enough to give even Tintagel a run for its money.
This is the Harbor Lights Cafe, a 16th-century building destroyed by the flood but rebuilt stone-for-stone and timber-for-timber:
If you hike up the cliff path, you get a bird’s-eye view that shows you how the landscape is sort of a death trap in heavy rains. The water basically funnels straight down into this steep valley with Boscastle at the bottom.
But you wouldn’t know it. Boscastle is a peaceful, scenic town that caters to the better class of tourist (i.e. the class capable of engineering six bus transfers). Its sheer inaccessibility guarantees that the tourists who make it that far really, really want to be there.
Like most of the Cornish coast, Boscastle is proud of its smuggling and bootlegging history. This is the Cobweb, one of the local pubs, with its collection of historic bottles hanging from the ceiling:
Boscastle’s harbor does an interesting twisty-turny thing:
And the slate is so vibrantly alive:
Stay tuned. More will be forthcoming.