Boscastle has long been on my bucket list to visit. Partially because it is called “the Salem of the UK”. I was so thrilled when we went for my birthday. I was bouncing up and down in the car with excitement.
There’s more to Boscastle than a picturesque natural harbour and village.
The famous Elizabethan quay sits in an impressive amphitheatre of steep cliffs and is home to quaint stone-built cottages, shops and tea-rooms. One of the unusual features at Boscastle is the Devil’s Bellows. This is a blow-hole located under Penally Point. When conditions are right, rushing water through the blow-hole produces a horizontal jet of water that reaches almost halfway across the harbour mouth.
Much of the land in and around Boscastle is owned by the National Trust. If you venture beyond the picture-postcard harbour and a cliff path takes you to the Willapark headland and an intriguing ex-folly, now used as a Coastwatch lookout.
Nearby walks around Forrabury Stitches offer a rare glimpse at a surviving farmed landscape showing ancient celtic strip fields. If you wander further afield, you’ll discover the half-forgotten churches of Minster and St Juliots – once made famous by Thomas Hardy.
But one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to visit was to see the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. It houses a collection of objects associated with various forms of witchcraft around the world, from crystal balls and broomsticks to paraphernalia used for divination and spells. It is the world’s largest collection of occult artefacts, and has been in Boscastle since 1960. The museum closes for winter on Nov 3, but will reopen in April.
Adding to Boscastle’s spooky reputation is The Wellington Hotel, a 17th-century coaching inn, and supposedly one of Britain’s most haunted locations.
I really want to return to attend the village’s annual Dark Gathering gets under way. Started in 2014, the Dark Gathering is a parade of elaborate costumes, traditional musicians and “obby osses”, performers dressed in huge decorative horse outfits, pagan symbols representing death and rebirth.
Have you ever visited Boscastle?
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