A Dark Scary Cold Place.

Bodmin Gaol
Attraction (General)
in/near Bodmin, Cornwall,
England South West

Recommendation added: 09/03/2006 14:56
By: katygriff (YSUK rating +273)

katygriff has been thanked 2 times for this contribution

"Bodmin is situated in Cornwall and it attracts many visitors for the simple reason that it contains a great tourist attraction Bodmin Gaol. This jail was built way back in 1777 and was regenerated over the years to accommodate for the increasing numbers of criminals. The gaol housed criminals from all over the UK and the gaol even hosted some hangings which the public were actually allowed to visit. In 1922 the prison closed and now if you visit Bodmin you can actually go in and tour the jail which is just what we did last summer.

When we pulled up it looked such a nice place, the architecture was fantastic and it was extremely busy so a warning to people traveling in their cars is that the car park is quite hard to maneuver around so be careful. There is a small shop selling souvenirs and a restaurant on site which had extremely friendly staff and a great atmosphere. To buy tickets to see the gaol you have to go through into the restaurant and there you can buy them and it will cost you around £5 each.

So off we traveled to the gaol and immediately you feel how cold it is in there. The actual prison in extremely dark and when you walk around you can actually feel how trapped the prisoners must have felt. There are replica statues of people who once stayed in the gaol located around and to be honest they can be quite distressing at times so I do not think this is a great attraction to bring little ones to.

The most interesting thing about Bodmin gaol is that as you are walking around the three floors that are there, dotted around on the walls are script that you can read which tells you about some of the people who were bought to the prison and why. They are interesting because some of them are just mad such as a lady set some corn on fire and she was hanged for it.

I would rate a visit to this prison very highly because we were there for a couple of hours and had a brilliant time and is worth the money you pay to go in. if you are in Bodmin this is one must see attraction."