It is rumoured that houses in these coves were (or perhaps still are) connected by secret underground tunnels to the coves below. Once upon a time, the shores of Devon and Cornwall were a haven for smugglers. History
15 Reasons Everyone Should Visit Cornwall at Least Once - Culture Trip Five years later, it happened again, his tractor opening up a hole in the ground. How do you like spiders? asked James Gossip, an archaeologist, British prehistory expert and my guide to this subterranean world one, apparently, thats already inhabited. Pirates of Penzance: One of the tunnels at the Abbey warehouse leading to the Admiral Benbow in Penzance which was used by smugglers to evade tax on the grog they were transporting. London is full of abandoned military, civilian, postal, tube, and other tunnels - some are open for tours, some are open secrets, and some are speculation. If one would like to visit a fogou in Cornwall, the best-preserved one is Halliggye Fogou. Its first, 1.8m-high chamber is large enough to easily move around in. . However, tunnels often double as a storm drain or some other functional channel, or else as an extension of a natural fissure in the rock as at Methleigh and Porthcothan,[3] but tunnels and caches (both wholly excavated and formed by extending natural formations) are more commonplace where covert landings in areas with few sheltered beaches exposed smugglers to the attentions of the Revenue Men. Or perhaps they were places to commune with the gods. Smuggling was rife in these twin villages during the 1700s and early 1800s and the villages were the main centre of smuggling contraband in the west country during that period. The term is also used where the tunnels are built in response to a siege. Smugglers were often very successful business people in their rights, and not the one-legged, rum drinking, drunken sailors often portrayed (although this could sometimes be true also). This 300 year old, former fisherman's cottage has an intriguing and mysterious history.