The Ship Inn
Built into the cliffs sometime between 1800 and 1810 (some say earlier), the Ship Inn, formerly the Ship Tavern, is the oldest pub still standing in Porthleven. Back then the village had just 63 dwellings and 220 inhabitants. It’s often been speculated that the Ship Inn was built on top of an old smugglers’ tunnel.
It’s often been speculated that the Ship Inn was built on top of an old smugglers’ tunnel, but a succession of landlords have failed to find it. Tunnels are also rumoured leading from caves on the west side of the harbour to Methleigh Manor.
Legend has it that the Ship’s bar is haunted: by Mrs Ruberry, a former landlady and the ghost of a French prisoner of war who reportedly hanged himself there. It’s reported that French prisoners from the Napoleonic wars were used for much of the heavy work during the construction of the harbour.
Today the Ship Inn is still a working pub. In the late 90s it found brief TV fame when episodes of the TV Detective Series Wycliffe were filmed here.
It’s well worth walking up to the different levels of the garden, each named after different parts of a ship. Look back over the Harbour for a bird’s eye view of its complex shape.