Day Tours → Day Tours of Cornwall’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Cornish Smugglers’ East Tour

Cornish Smugglers' East Private Tour

Tall Ships, Pirates & Smugglers

Delve into the salty world of a Cornish Smuggler. Learn why many Cornish fishermen turned to smuggling high-taxed goods into the country throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.  We will visit a UNESCO World Heritage site, with its resident tall ships, a waterside town made rich on Piracy and a fishing village where everyone was bringing in contraband from the Channel Islands and France, hiding it in caves and trying to outwit the Customs men.

Tour Agenda

Map of the Cornish Smuggler’s East Tour

  • Charlestown

    We visit the last open 18th-century Georgian harbour in the UK, where we can see the square-rigged, tall ships that are residents. A true glance into the sultry world of ship merchants and smuggling, with time to climb aboard these impressive vessels.

  • Fowey

    This beautiful historical harbour town sits at the mouth of the River Fowey and was the gateway to trading granite, fish, tin, and China clay. While wandering the narrow street and waterfront, hear stories of illegal piracy from the town’s corrupt past. From here we catch a small car ferry across the water, passing the home of famous author Daphne Du Maurier.

  • Polperro

    Lunch Spot

    A scenic stroll of the South West Coast Path gets us to this prosperous smuggling port of 12th-century origin with a beautiful high street of independent shops and galleries and a small museum that tells of this town’s criminal history. We pick one of the many eateries for a tasty lunch.

  • Bodmin Moor

    Here we visit either visit the Jamaica Inn, an 18th-century coaching inn which welcomed weary travelers to rest for the night after a long day’s ride across the moors. In its Smugglers Museum, see artifacts of stolen treasures from times gone by. Or visit Bodmin Jail, where smugglers and wreckers would be jailed for their crimes, their new, immersive experience is great for all ages or enjoy the rugged Moors for its scenery. Enjoy a Cornish Cream Tea Picnic overlooking the moorland before returning to your accommodation.