Notorious for pirates, smuggling, and other illicit activities, the Jamaica Inn at Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England is also known for phantoms and spirits hanging around the grounds. Author Daphne du Maurier published a novel about the place in 1936 and acclaimed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock adapted it into a film that was released in 1939. In 1983, there was a miniseries about it made and also a 2014 TV film.
The current building was built in 1750, but there has been an inn present on the road since 1547. The etymology of the establishment's name either derives from the Trelawney Family who once owned the place, as two of the members served as governors in Jamaica, or from being a storehouse for Jamaican rum stolen by smugglers.
The dangerous Jamaica Inn.
Bodmin Moor is a part of the massive Cornubian batholith--a granite land mass that stretches across a large portion of Great Britain's south-western peninsula. It is a treacherous piece of land to access, and this is what made it a favorite location for smugglers to hide their booty. Allegedly, there are more than 100 different routes that lead to this terrible terrain. Wreckers used to use the rocky bays and crashing waves to capture ships and loot them, then leave the inhabitants for dead.
Bodmin Moor was known for so much treachery and brutality that no one can account for every ship wrecked there or every life lost on property. But, there is no doubt that the Jamaica Inn was a dangerous place for travelers to find themselves. A lot of them never found their ways back out.
Thanks to such a menacing history, the inn is said to be haunted by the wayward souls of the plunderers, pirates, and killers that had stopped there, as well as the victims who met doom at the edge of their blades.
Stories of phantom boats awash at the water's edge have been reported, the wailing of anguished spirits rising from them in the night. Wasted wraiths have been alleged to wander the roads nearby, drifting into nothingness on the winds. The mysterious clop of hooves along the streets are heard, accompanied by the squeaking of the wagon wheels as the thieves make their way towards London. Legend has it that anyone who hears the moans of the iron carts will be cursed to endless poverty.
The most ghastly haunt of them all is about a man who was gutted in the dead of night by a stranger who lured him outside. The man's disemboweled body was found the next day. Many years later, it is said that his ghost returned on a cold night in January. Outside, the apparition was seen in the darkness, and as the landlord went to lock up his business, the ghost ran into the inn and was found drinking ale with his innards hanging out. Footsteps have been heard passing through there ever since. It is believed the spirit returned for the beer he left sitting on the bar the night he was eviscerated.
A very macabre and sensational tale coming out of the infamous inn. Who knows to what extent it is accurate, but it is certainly interesting. Hope you enjoyed it.
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The unwelcoming granite slab that is Bodmin Moor.
One of the rocky cliffs of Bodmin Moor.
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