You are currently viewing Cosy Cornish Pubs: Where to Find a Real Open Fire

Cosy Cornish Pubs: Where to Find a Real Open Fire

Quick answer: Cornwall’s best winter pubs are the old ones with a real fire, and there are more of them than any list admits. The sure things: Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor, the Pandora at Mylor with its thatched rebuild, the Crown at Lanlivery with a woodburner in a medieval inglenook, the Victory at St Mawes with a fire at each end of one small bar, Cadgwith Cove Inn, the Tinners Arms at Zennor and the Gurnard’s Head above Treen. Every fire named below is confirmed either by the pub itself or by CAMRA’s Cornwall guide. Where we couldn’t confirm one, we say so.

A Cornish pub in winter is a specific pleasure: granite walls two feet thick, a fire going since lunchtime, a dog in front of it, and weather hammering the window. This guide names pubs with real fires, by area, and is honest about which claims we could verify. It pairs well with Cornwall in January and romantic winter breaks: the fire is the destination when the coast is doing its worst.

Table of Contents

  1. How we checked
  2. The far west
  3. North coast
  4. Bodmin Moor
  5. South coast, Roseland and Fowey
  6. The Lizard and the Helford
  7. The Tamar valley and the south-east
  8. Fires with rooms, and fires with dogs
  9. How to tell a real fire from marketing
  10. Great pubs we couldn’t confirm a fire for
  11. FAQ
  12. References and resources

How we checked

“Cosy” is marketing. A fire is a fact, and surprisingly few pub websites mention one. So every pub below falls into one of two groups:

  • Confirmed by the pub — the fire is described on its own website.
  • Confirmed by CAMRA — the Cornwall pub guide carries a specific “real fire” entry, which is an editorial judgement rather than an advert.

Pubs we love but couldn’t confirm a fire for are listed at the end rather than quietly included. We’ve deliberately printed no opening hours: Cornish pubs change them constantly in winter. Follow the links and check, and ring ahead anywhere you’re planning to eat.

The far west

  • The Tinners Arms, Zennor. Granite, built in 1271 for the masons working on the church, and barely changed since. No fruit machines, no keg lager, walkers off the coast path, folk music on a Thursday. The purest version of the thing.
  • The Gurnard’s Head, near Zennor. The yellow landmark on the B3306: a log fire in the bar, serious food, and rooms upstairs if the weather wins. Good Food Guide listed, and open all year.
  • The Ship Inn, Mousehole. On the harbour wall, with granite flags, low beams and Penlee lifeboat memorabilia on the walls. In December, with the harbour lights on, it’s the best room in Cornwall — and the hardest to get into without booking.

North coast

  • Bucket of Blood, Phillack near Hayle. A cosy drinking room with settles and an old fireplace, and the best pub name in the county, from a grisly well legend. Closed at the start of the week, so check before setting off.
  • Plume of Feathers, Mitchell. Dinner by the fire in a village pub beside the A30, dog-friendly throughout, and rooms if you want to stay.

Bodmin Moor

  • Jamaica Inn, Bolventor. Low oak beams, crackling fires and a hint of peat smoke, in the middle of the moor. Daphne du Maurier stayed and wrote the novel; there’s a museum and a smugglers’ bar. Dog rooms available.
  • King’s Head, Five Lanes, Altarnun. A fifteenth-century coaching inn with two flagstoned bars and the public bar warmed by an open log fire, with guest ales and gravity cider.

Both sit within or beside the Bodmin Moor dark sky area, which makes them the obvious warm-up or thaw-out after a night under the stars.

South coast, Roseland and Fowey

  • Pandora Inn, Restronguet. Thatched, medieval, right on the creek, with open log fires and a pontoon for summer. It burned down in a thatch fire in 2011 and was rebuilt with traditional materials, which is why it still feels right.
  • Victory Inn, St Mawes. A proper locals’ pub up the hill from the harbour, with a real fire at both ends of one room and seafood worth ordering.
  • Rising Sun, St Mawes. Harbourside, food-led, with a fire in the lounge bar. Parking in St Mawes is the only difficulty.
  • Rashleigh Inn, Polkerris. Exposed stone, beams and open fires in a former coastguard watch house with its own beach — the original pub was lost when the sea wall collapsed in 1915.
  • Crown Inn, Lanlivery. A twelfth-century longhouse on the Saints’ Way with a huge woodburning stove in an inglenook, a medieval well under glass in the porch, and rooms.
  • Ship Inn, Fowey. Once the Rashleigh family’s town house, with a roaring wood fire when it’s cold and St Austell beers.
  • Blue Peter, Polperro. Two old smugglers’ cottages above the harbour, low beams, nautical clutter, and the only sea and harbour views from inside a pub in Polperro.

The Lizard and the Helford

  • Cadgwith Cove Inn. Three hundred years old, front rooms warmed with log fires, shipwreck photographs on the walls and sea shanties on a Friday night. Open all year, very dog-friendly, and with rooms.
  • Halzephron Inn, Gunwalloe. Built around 1468 from wreck timber, its name from the Cornish for the cliffs of hell, with a smugglers’ shaft from the pub into a tunnel that still exists.
  • Trengilly Wartha, Constantine. A free house in six acres with a lake, a boules piste and a famous cellar: 150-odd wines and 40 whiskies, which is not what you expect down a Cornish lane.

The Tamar valley and the south-east

  • Who’d Have Thought It, St Dominick. Open fires, low beams and a proper welcome, in an 1840s former courthouse near Cotehele. Relaunched recently with letting pods, and closed in the middle of the week, so ring first.
  • Jubilee Inn, Pelynt. Seventeenth-century, renamed for Victoria’s golden jubilee, with oak beams, a Delabole slate floor and a vast burnished copper hood over the bar fire. New landlords in recent years, so check what you’re getting.

Fires with rooms, and fires with dogs

Half the pleasure of a winter pub is not driving home afterwards.

  • Rooms: the Tinners Arms (next door at the White House), Gurnard’s Head, Ship Inn at Mousehole, Jamaica Inn, Crown at Lanlivery, Cadgwith Cove Inn, Halzephron, Trengilly Wartha, Plume of Feathers, Rising Sun and Victory at St Mawes, King’s Head at Five Lanes, and the new pods at Who’d Have Thought It.
  • Dogs: welcome at nearly all of them, with conditions worth knowing. Jamaica Inn has dog rooms for a nightly charge, the Pandora takes dogs on leads in the downstairs bar, and the Plume of Feathers is dog-friendly throughout.

How to tell a real fire from marketing

  1. Look for the noun, not the mood. “Inglenook”, “log fire”, “woodburner” and “open fire” are claims. “Cosy”, “snug” and “warm welcome” are not.
  2. Check the photographs, not the copy. A lit grate in the gallery beats any amount of homepage adjective, though watch for stock images.
  3. Cross-check CAMRA. Its Cornwall guide flags real fires specifically, and the absence of that flag on a pub’s entry is meaningful.
  4. Distrust round-ups by letting agencies. They recycle each other, and several “open fires” we chased came from nowhere at all.
  5. Remember refurbishments. Plenty of old grates were replaced by enclosed woodburners or gas stoves. Still warm, not the same thing.
  6. Phone. Thirty seconds settles it, and you can ask whether the fire is lit midweek in February, which is the real question.

Great pubs we couldn’t confirm a fire for

Included for honesty, because all of them are worth your time anyway: the Turk’s Head in Penzance, reputedly the town’s oldest, with a smuggling tunnel to the harbour; the Old Coastguard at Mousehole, sister to the Gurnard’s Head, with sea views from nearly every room; the Blisland Inn on Bodmin Moor, a national CAMRA pub of the year with thousands of ales behind it; the Driftwood Spars at St Agnes, built from shipwreck timber with its own brewery; the Heron at Malpas on the river; the Shipwright’s Arms at Helford, thatched and recently reinvested in; and the Springer Spaniel at Treburley. Several are described elsewhere as having wood burners, but not by themselves or by CAMRA, so we’ve left the claim out rather than repeat it.

FAQ

Q: Which Cornish pubs have open fires?
A: Confirmed ones include Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor, the Pandora Inn at Restronguet, the Crown at Lanlivery, the Victory and Rising Sun at St Mawes, the Rashleigh at Polkerris, Cadgwith Cove Inn, Halzephron at Gunwalloe, the Tinners Arms at Zennor, the Gurnard’s Head, the Ship Inn at Mousehole, the Ship Inn at Fowey, the Blue Peter at Polperro, the King’s Head at Five Lanes, Trengilly Wartha, the Bucket of Blood at Phillack, the Plume of Feathers at Mitchell, the Jubilee at Pelynt and Who’d Have Thought It at St Dominick.

Q: What is the oldest pub in Cornwall?
A: Several claim it. The Tinners Arms at Zennor dates from 1271 and was built for the masons working on the church; the Halzephron at Gunwalloe goes back to about 1468; and the Turk’s Head in Penzance is reputed to be the town’s oldest, with a smuggling tunnel to the harbour.

Q: Which Cornish pubs with fires have rooms?
A: The Tinners Arms, Gurnard’s Head, Ship Inn at Mousehole, Jamaica Inn, Crown at Lanlivery, Cadgwith Cove Inn, Halzephron, Trengilly Wartha, Plume of Feathers, Rising Sun, Victory, King’s Head at Five Lanes, and Who’d Have Thought It, which now has letting pods.

Q: Are Cornish pubs open in winter?
A: Most are, but many reduce their days, and some close at the start of the week: the Bucket of Blood and Who’d Have Thought It both do. The Gurnard’s Head and Cadgwith Cove Inn both state they’re open all year. Always check before travelling, and book if you want to eat.

Q: Is Jamaica Inn worth visiting?
A: Yes, for the setting as much as the pub: low beams, fires and peat smoke in the middle of Bodmin Moor, with a Daphne du Maurier museum and a smugglers’ bar. It’s also one of the easiest warm places to reach after stargazing on the moor.

Q: Which Cornish pub has the best fire?
A: For the fireplace itself, the Crown at Lanlivery, where a large woodburning stove sits in a medieval inglenook. For sheer quantity, the Victory at St Mawes has a fire at each end of a single small bar.

References and resources