The Dolphin Tavern, Penzance

The claim

Steps from Penzance harbour, the Dolphin is a rambling former smugglers' inn with ships' pressure gauges and nautical odds and ends among its beams. Tradition dates it to 1585 and says Armada-era seafarers drank here, though the paperwork is thin. It is reputedly haunted, serves St Austell ales and has bedrooms upstairs.

What the records show

The 1585, the link to Sir John Hawkins and the story of the first pipe of tobacco smoked in England are local tradition; no documentary proof has been found. A second account, published by Cornish Story at the Institute of Cornish Studies, is franker than the tavern's own and differs from it in two places. It says the age of the building is unknown, placing the granite front somewhere in the fourteenth century rather than the sixteenth; and it dates the Hawkins recruiting to 1595, ten years after the year over the door. It repeats the Raleigh story only as something said, and mentions the courtroom and Judge Jeffreys without a date or a record. The tavern's own site sets out the 1585, the Hawkins, Raleigh and courtroom stories together and shows hours of eleven in the morning to eleven at night, seven days. All tradition rather than record, so grade C is right.

What to look for inside

Reputedly haunted former smugglers' inn
Harbourside, near the Scilly ferry quay

Visiting

The Dolphin Tavern is in Penzance, England, at Quay Street, Penzance TR18 4BD. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

dolphintavern.co.uk Directions in your maps app