Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn is located in Cornwall
Jamaica Inn
Location within Cornwall
General information
LocationBolventor, Cornwall, England, UK
Coordinates50°33′44″N 4°34′01″W / 50.56222°N 4.56694°W / 50.56222; -4.56694
Opening1760/1776
Website
JamaicaInn.co.uk

The Jamaica Inn is a traditional inn on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, which was built as a coaching inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. Located just off the A30, near the middle of the moor close to the hamlet of Bolventor, it was originally used as a staging post for changing horses.[1] The 1,122-foot-high (342 m) "Tuber" or "Two Barrows" hill, is close by.[2]

The inn was the setting for Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel Jamaica Inn,[3][4] about the nocturnal activities of a smuggling ring, "portraying a hidden world as a place of tense excitement and claustrophobia of real peril and thrill."[5] In the novel, it was transformed into a rendezvous and warehouse for smuggling that was solely the home of the landlord and his wife.[6] The novel has been adapted into various media, most famously an eponymous 1939 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However, the inn itself has never actually been used as a filming location.[3]

The inn is also referenced in "Jamaica Inn", a song by Tori Amos from her album The Beekeeper (2005), written while she was driving along the cliffs in Cornwall, and inspired by the legend she had heard of the inn.[7]

  1. ^ Historic England. "Jamaica Inn (1142775)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  2. ^ Paris, Thomas Clifton (1859). A hand-book for travellers in Devon & Cornwall [by T.C. Paris]. p. 166.
  3. ^ a b "Alfred Hitchcock Collectors' Guide: Jamaica Inn (1939)". Brenton Film. 16 February 2021.
  4. ^ Jean Paschke (March 2007). "The Cornwall of Daphne du Maurier". British Heritage. Weider History Group. p. 2. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
  5. ^ Cornwall Tourism. Cornwall Tourism Guide. Cornwall Tourism. p. 13. GGKEY:CH2WCKGTDN1. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Inc{1939} was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "About This Track: Tori Amos – Jamaica Inn". last.fm. Retrieved 26 December 2010.