The rugged coastline of Cornwall, with its hidden coves, atmospheric mists, and labyrinthine network of inland paths, provided the perfect backdrop for what was once one of the region's most prosperous industries: smuggling. From the mid-17th century until the early 19th century, the "free trade" (as smugglers preferred to call their illicit activities) flourished along Cornwall's shores, creating a shadow economy that some historians believe was worth more than all legitimate trade in the county combined.

While the romantic image of smugglers has been burnished through novels and films, the reality was a complex mix of organised crime, community complicity, and economic necessity. What remains undeniable is the physical legacy of this clandestine commerce: a network of hidden paths, secret storage locations, and covert signals that can still be traced by those who know where to look.

Why Cornwall Became Smuggling Country

Cornwall's emergence as a smuggling stronghold was the product of geography, economics, and politics. The county's position – jutting into the western approaches with hundreds of miles of convoluted coastline – made it ideally situated for illicit trade with France, Spain, and the Channel Islands. This geographic advantage was amplified by several key factors:

• Punitive taxation: The 18th century saw ever-increasing duties on imported luxury goods like brandy, tea, tobacco, and silk, making smuggling extraordinarily profitable
• Economic hardship: As traditional Cornish industries like mining and fishing faced periodic downturns, smuggling provided alternative employment
• Limited law enforcement: The Customs service was undermanned and often corrupt, while the rugged terrain made effective policing nearly impossible
• Community support: Local people from all social classes participated in or benefited from smuggling, creating a wall of silence against authorities

"In many Cornish parishes, the vicar would delay Sunday services if a smuggling run was expected, allowing his congregation to assist in landing the goods before attending church with clear consciences."
— Dr. Jonathan Pierce, Maritime Historian

By the mid-18th century, smuggling had become so endemic that in some coastal communities, it was less a crime than an expected part of the economic landscape. Estimates suggest that up to three-quarters of all tea consumed in Britain in the 1760s had evaded customs duty, with Cornwall serving as a major entry point.

The Physical Geography of Smuggling

What makes the story of Cornish smuggling particularly fascinating from a historical tourism perspective is how deeply it shaped (and was shaped by) the physical landscape. Successful smuggling required not just ships and brave crews, but an intricate knowledge of the coastal geography and a network of inland routes designed to evade detection.

The Coastal Gateways

The first requirement for successful smuggling was suitable landing spots. The ideal smugglers' cove needed several characteristics:

• Deep enough water for boats to approach at any tide
• Natural screening from obvious viewpoints
• Multiple escape routes inland
• Proximity to inland routes yet distance from major settlements or revenue stations

Locations like Prussia Cove, Penberth, and Loe Bar exemplified these traits. Prussia Cove, famously associated with the Carter family of smugglers, offers a particularly interesting example. The small, sheltered inlet provided natural protection from both the elements and prying eyes, while the surrounding cliffs offered lookout points to spot approaching revenue cutters.

At many of these landing sites, physical modifications were made to facilitate smuggling operations. At Penberth, for instance, stones were arranged to create primitive jetties usable only by those familiar with their layout. In other locations, caves were expanded or modified to create temporary storage spaces.

The Inland Network: Secret Paths and Hidden Storage

Once contraband was landed, the next challenge was moving it inland to storage locations and eventual distribution networks. This required a sophisticated understanding of the landscape and the creation of routes specifically designed to evade detection.

Many smugglers' paths shared common characteristics:

• Avoidance of main roads and established tracks
• Multiple branching options for evading pursuit
• Strategic use of terrain features like streams (to hide footprints and throw off tracking dogs)
• Passage through densely vegetated areas providing cover
• Routes connecting series of safe houses and temporary storage locations

These paths didn't exist in isolation but formed parts of larger networks connecting coastal landing sites to inland distribution points and markets. Major routes often led to towns like Helston, Penzance, and Truro, where goods could enter legitimate commercial channels.

Walking the Smugglers' Trails Today

For today's visitor, tracing these historical smuggling routes offers a unique way to experience Cornwall's landscape and maritime heritage. Several areas provide particularly rewarding opportunities for exploration:

The Lizard Peninsula

The southernmost point of mainland Britain was also one of its smuggling hotspots. A walk from Kynance Cove to Mullion traces a route once used to transport contraband inland from the treacherous but secluded beaches. The path deliberately avoids ridgelines (where smugglers would be silhouetted against the sky) and instead follows shallow valleys and dips in the terrain.

Particularly atmospheric is the section near Goonhilly Downs, where in misty conditions – common on The Lizard – visibility drops dramatically, recreating the conditions smugglers preferred for moving their goods. Local legend claims that lanterns were hung from the horns of cows on foggy nights to confuse revenue men, making them think the lights were from distant cottages rather than signals between smuggling gangs.

Bodmin Moor: The Inland Highway

While coastal paths are often the focus of smuggling histories, inland routes were equally important. Bodmin Moor served as a major transit area for contraband headed toward Devon and beyond to London. The Jamaica Inn, immortalised in Daphne du Maurier's novel, stands as testament to this history, though it represents only one node in a complex network.

Less well-known are the "church paths" that crisscross the moor. These ostensibly existed to allow parishioners to reach churches in remote areas, but many show curious deviations from the most direct routes. These diversions often lead past former safe houses or storage locations – isolated farms and cottages where contraband could be temporarily hidden.

The Copper Trail, a modern long-distance footpath around the edges of Bodmin Moor, incorporates several sections of these older routes. Particularly interesting is the stretch near Temple, where the preceptory of the Knights Templar once stood, providing (according to local tradition) ecclesiastical protection for certain smuggling operations.

The North Coast: Hawker's Territory

Cornwall's north coast presents a different type of smuggling landscape – more dramatic and exposed than the south, with fewer natural harbours but spectacular caves and inlets that could be accessed by experienced sailors in the right conditions.

Around Morwenstow, the story of Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker provides a fascinating counterpoint to the typical smuggling narrative. Hawker, the eccentric vicar of Morwenstow from 1834 to 1875, was known for giving Christian burials to drowned sailors at a time when many considered suicide the presumptive cause of shipwrecks. However, local tradition suggests his humanitarian efforts had an additional purpose – discouraging "wrecking" (the deliberate luring of ships onto rocks) in order to protect legitimate smuggling operations.

The path from Morwenstow to Marsland Mouth follows what was once a smugglers' trail, skirting the cliff edge before diving inland through steep coombes (valleys). Several points along this route offer clear views for miles along the coast – perfect locations for lookouts monitoring for revenue cutters.

Hidden Signs: Reading the Smugglers' Landscape

For the observant walker, the Cornish landscape is full of subtle indicators of its smuggling past. Learning to read these signs adds an extra dimension to explorations of the coastal paths and inland routes:

Physical Features to Look For

• Sunken lanes - deeply eroded pathways that provided covered routes for pack horses laden with contraband
• False walls and hedges - seemingly ancient boundaries that contain hidden gaps or removable sections
• Unusual chimneys on old cottages - some were designed with false compartments for storage
• Cellars and undercrofts in coastal buildings - often with concealed access points or escape tunnels
• Zigzagging paths that seem inefficient but actually provide multiple escape options

Place Names and Local Terminology

The linguistic landscape also preserves evidence of smuggling activity. Place names containing elements like "shag" (meaning cormorant, but also used as a code word for contraband), "gull" (slang for customs officers), or "blind" (hidden from view) often indicate locations with smuggling connections.

Even more revealing is the local terminology still preserved in Cornish dialect and folklore. Terms like "freetraders" (smugglers), "spotsmen" (lookouts), and "tubmen" (carriers of contraband) appear in local histories and place descriptions, providing clues to the role specific locations played in smuggling operations.

Famous Smuggling Stories and Characters

The historical record of Cornish smuggling is enriched by colorful characters whose exploits have become legendary. Three in particular stand out as emblematic of different aspects of the trade:

The Carter Family of Prussia Cove

Perhaps the most famous Cornish smugglers were the Carter brothers, who operated from Prussia Cove (then called Porthleah) in Mount's Bay during the late 18th century. John Carter, known as the "King of Prussia" (hence the cove's modern name), ran what amounted to a commercial import business – albeit one that bypassed customs duties.

What makes the Carters unusual in smuggling folklore is their reputation for a kind of honour among thieves. One famous story relates how, after revenue officers had confiscated some goods from a local shop, John Carter broke into the customs house at night to retrieve exactly those items that belonged to him – leaving everything else untouched and even reportedly leaving payment for a lock he had damaged.

The paths connecting Prussia Cove to villages like Germoe and Praa Sands reflect the Carters' methodical approach – they're direct enough to be efficient but carefully positioned to provide maximum cover from observation points used by customs officials.

The Cruel Coppinger

If the Carters represent the "respectable" face of smuggling, then the figure known as Cruel Coppinger embodies its darker aspects. According to legend, Coppinger was a shipwrecked Danish sailor who washed ashore near Hartland Point during a storm in the late 18th century. He quickly established himself as the leader of a smuggling gang operating around the north Cornwall coast, reputedly through intimidation and violence.

The routes associated with Coppinger's operations – particularly around Morwenstow and Welcombe – reflect a different approach to smuggling. They feature multiple false trails, deliberate bottlenecks where pursuing officers could be ambushed, and connections to remote farmhouses that served as recruiting grounds for gang members.

The "Gentlemen" of Polperro

The fishing village of Polperro on Cornwall's south coast housed one of the most sophisticated smuggling operations of the 18th century. Led by Zephaniah Job, a local merchant and banker who acted as the operation's financier and record-keeper, the Polperro smugglers dealt primarily in high-value luxury goods rather than bulk commodities.

What makes Polperro particularly interesting is the integration of smuggling into legitimate commerce. Job kept meticulous books recording both legal and illegal transactions, essentially operating a shadow banking system for the smuggling trade. The physical infrastructure of the village still reflects this duality – seemingly ordinary fishing cottages contain hidden storage spaces, while the narrow, winding streets create a maze that could easily confound revenue officers unfamiliar with its layout.

The Modern Legacy: Experiencing Smuggling Heritage Today

The legacy of Cornwall's smuggling past goes beyond physical paths and hidden coves. It has deeply influenced the county's cultural identity and remains an important part of its heritage tourism offering. For visitors interested in exploring this aspect of Cornish history, several approaches offer rewarding experiences:

Our "Smugglers' Cornwall" tour combines carefully researched historical interpretation with walks along authentic smuggling routes. We focus particularly on the less-visited sections of coastline where the atmosphere of this clandestine trade can still be felt most strongly. By walking the actual paths used to transport contraband and visiting the coves where it was landed, participants gain a visceral understanding of how smuggling operations functioned within the Cornish landscape.

As you walk these ancient paths, consider the layers of history beneath your feet – the countless journeys made under cover of darkness, the whispered passwords, the community complicity, and the economic desperation that drove ordinary people to extraordinary risks. The smugglers' Cornwall represents more than just a fascinating historical footnote; it offers a window into how ordinary people navigated the harsh economic realities of their time, creating alternative systems when official ones failed to serve their needs.

These secret paths, hidden for centuries in plain sight across the Cornish landscape, remind us that the official historical record often captures only part of the story – and that some of the most fascinating chapters of our past lie in the spaces between the documented facts, in the shadows and byways where ordinary people lived extraordinary lives.