The Ship Inn, Porlock — claims 1200

The Ship Inn

High Street, Porlock TA24 8QD

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

The Ship Inn claims 1200. No earlier record has been found.

Claimed

1200

First record

none found

Building

no single date

The building. Inn, C16 to C17, altered and enlarged in the early to mid C19; part-thatched, half-hipped roof; the Exmoor Historic Environment Record reads it the same way, as an inn of 16th- or 17th-century origins with a cross passage — we give it no single date because Historic England gives C16 to C17 with C19 enlargement, so the fabric has no single year.

Thatched

Food

Rooms

Real ale

Beer garden

The claim

Known locally as the Top Ship, this thatched inn sits where the village street begins to climb Porlock Hill. Flagged floors, log burners and low beams inside; a big yard and play area outside. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served daily and there are rooms above, which suits walkers off the coast path.

What the records show

The Ship advertises itself as a 13th-century coaching inn at the foot of Porlock Hill. Historic England lists it as an inn of C16 to C17 date, probably a three-room and cross-passage house, enlarged by a bay to the left and four bays to the right in the early to mid C19, its thatch half-hipped at one end. The Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record, which keeps the record for this parish, reads it independently and reaches the same century: monument MSO10692, an inn of 16th- or 17th-century origins with a cross passage, altered and enlarged in the early to mid 19th century. Two registers agree with each other and neither reaches the 13th century, and no record of drinking here that early has been traced. The Exmoor record also carries a story of Robert Southey kept in by summer rain, under a year we could not reconcile with the poet's own dates and have not repeated. CAMRA notes the interior for its 16th-century core.

What to look for inside

Thatched and half-hipped roof at the foot of Porlock Hill
Known in the village as the Top Ship
Interior noted by CAMRA for its 16th-century core

Visiting

The Ship Inn is in Porlock, England, at High Street, Porlock TA24 8QD. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

shipinnporlock.co.uk Directions in your maps app