The narrow headland of Sharrow Point juts out into the waves that wash into Whitsand Bay on Cornwall’s far eastern coast. At first glance the most remarkable thing about the little promontory is the breath-taking views it affords, stretching from Rame Head to Dodman Point but this rocky outcrop also hides an unusual relic from the past.

A man-made cave known as ‘Sharrow Grot’, or sometimes ‘Lugger’s Cave’ after the man who made it.

This part of Cornwall is perhaps the one of least well known and least visited areas, often bypassed by visitors as they zoom on by for the beaches and attractions further west, but the landscape here has a dramatic and wild beauty that deserves exploration. And in the late 18th century Joseph Lugger, a naval officer, found a kind of peace and healing on this isolated stretch of coast.

Who was Joseph Lugger?

In the past there was only a narrow bridleway, little more than a footpath, running along this piece of the coastline – the road that we see today was installed sometime in the mid-19th century to link Tregantle Fort with the outside world. It isn’t clear what exactly brought Joseph Lugger to Sharrow Point but it is thought that he was stationed in the area in between 1776 and 1783.

Cawsand Bay just along the coast was a naval anchorage at that time and of course Devonport is just beyond that, and Lugger, who had joined the navy in the 1750s, was a naval warrant officer and may have found himself billeted at the nearby fort.

The story goes that Lugger was not in the best of health, perhaps suffering from a severe case of gout, which could be a rather painful and debilitating condition, and it is thought that he was advised to get as much fresh air and exercise as possible to aid his recovery. The story goes that his walks led him to Sharrow Point where there was a natural flat shelf of rock just beneath the cliff edge with wonderful panoramic views. The perfect place to pause and get a lung full of sea air.

This rocky platform had been used in the past by local fishermen to land their catch and at one time they had built a fish cellar there – the holes for the supporting beams can still be seen cut into the rock face. And perhaps seeing these small holes cut into the cliff may have been what gave Joseph Lugger the idea of making his very own cavern.

There may also have been a natural cave here already and he took it upon himself to improve on this depression and create the grotto, Sharrow Grot, that we see today.

The Grotto & its Poems

We don’t know how long the task of carving out this hole took him but in the end Lugger’s man-made cave, which is now cared for by the National Trust, measured about 4.5m deep and 2m high, with a rock cut bench running around the edge inside. He also installed a large wooden table in the centre of Sharrow Grot but this has long since vanished, apparently broke up sometime in the 19th century.

The task seems to have helped Lugger’s medical condition, whatever it was, so as well as the cosy lookout for him it seems he hoped that others would enjoy the sea air there for their health too. To that end he also covered the walls and ceiling with poems that he cut into the rock. Sadly most of these inscriptions have now disappeared, covered by later graffiti, have been destroyed by weathering or when the roof of the cave collapsed.

But we know that one of these missives read:

"By exercise here oft endured, 
even the gout for many years was cured".

And some of the other words were recorded by a few of the early visitors to the grotto, although they were not were not always polite about what they thought were his poetical efforts (see Lipscombe quote below).

"Whenever thou dost enter this sequestered Grott
May every jarring passion be forgot.
Behold yon scenes. how vast. how grand,
Proclaim the wonders of thy Maker's hand
Who gave thy soul its evenly thinking power
And kindly shields thee every passing hour"

Although this poem (above) is almost certainly by Lugger not all of the verses were.

According to the first recorded visitor to the Sharrow Grot, George Lipscombe, who published a book entitled ‘A Journey into Cornwall’ in 1799, the poems on the walls of the cave had been composed by someone else.

In fact, they appear to have been written by a woman!

Lipscombe, a young doctor, travelled through Cornwall as far west as St Austell and kept a diary of his journey. In it he noted visiting Sharrow Grot, which he said was “a place of some notoriety” at the time. He wrote that the cave was the work of one man, the retired naval officer Joseph Lugger, ” a gentleman of advanced life” who had dug it out “with his own hands”.

Lipscombe also notes that the verses on the walls and ceiling were the work of Mrs Ann Thomas of Millbrook “an officer’s widow of the Royal Navy.”

It seems that Lugger copied the poems from a book that Ann Thomas had published in 1784.

One of these verses, written by Ann, Lipscombe records as:

Look round on this terraqueous ball,
How all nations rise and fall . . ."

Ann, who dedicated her little book to Lady Eliot of Port Eliot, wrote poems about the arrival of the French Fleet in Plymouth in 1779 and the victory over the French in 1782 and it seems that Lugger laboriously copied these verses on to the rocky walls inside the cavern he had created.

One wonders whether Lugger knew Ann Thomas personally or whether it was just the subject of her work that appealed to him . . .

Other Visitors Thoughts on Sharrow Grot . . .

Almost as soon as it was created it seems that the Sharrow Grot became something of a local curiosity – a tourist attraction on this part of the Cornish coast.

Other than Lipscombe’s, the earliest account that I have been able to find dates from January 1814 and appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine Vol 118 (July-December 1815). It seems that in previous editions the publication had been describing unusual places for the readers to go and visit, places they described as “curiosities of Art and Nature” and on this occasion a gentleman writes in with a suggestion for an interesting location and has his letter published:

“I do not recollect meeting with any account of Sharrow Grot in Cornwall, which I visited last spring in company with a small party of friends. The following attempt to describe it is at your service.

A short distance from Milbrook, on the coast of Whitsand Bay, amidst a pile of rock which obscure every feature of beauty or sublimity and to which a rough hewn flight of steps leads from a sloping plain stands the Grot, which is a cavern sufficiently large to contain several persons. The roofs and sides are covered with rhimes [sic], not very remarkable for poetic genius; a table occupies the centre and round it a stone seat.

The cavern is elevated more than a hundred feet above the level of the sea and immediately in front of the rock, which is schistus of slate, forms a platform surrounded by a natural parapet, which enables the spectator to view without apprehension the magnificent expanse which comprehends a line of Ocean from Edystone [sic] to the Dead Man’s Point [Dodman’s Point].”

The letter is signed with the pseudonym ‘Desultorious‘ and the writer also describes the surrounding countryside to be “barren of wood” and empty of any human habitations for miles around, which he concludes “completes the savage grandeur of the scene”.

Another early visitor was the writer and journalist Cyrus Redding who came to Whitsand Bay in the 1840s. He writes:

“The grotto to which we allude is not far from Higher Tregantle village. The place is called Sharrow. There was formerly a considerable pilchard fishery carried on there. A lieutenant in the navy, named Lugger, was stationed at Higher Tregantle during the American war, and being much troubled with the gout, had perseverance enough to cure himself by a common-sense prescription of his own. The cliff at one place goes down perpendicularly for twenty feet, and then projects in a sort of platform, about the same number of feet, again descending, step fashion, to a considerable depth.
In the perpendicular part, this officer began an excavation in the schistose rock, and in time completed a grotto, fifteen feet long and seven high, with a seat round it. In the centre he placed an oaken table, and carved in the solid rock sixty-six lines of poetry, not very comprehensible.
They are a description of an imaginary palace hard by, and make allusions to a fishery once carried on in the bay. The view from the entrance of this grotto commands the whole bay, and “Sharrow Grot” has long been a wonder in the neighbourhood. Still better, the labour of the excavation cured Mr Lugger’s gout.” – An Illustrated Itinerary of the County of Cornwall, Cyrus Redding, 1843

Today, for those who seek it out the Sharrow’s Grot is still a wonderful curiosity!

And from a personal perspective, sitting with my back against the sun-warmed rock on that rocky platform, as the light faded at the end of a bright and clear early spring day, and gazing out at that amazing view, will always be a very happy memory!

Directions for Visiting the Sharrow’s Grot

Not far from Tregantle Fort, off the B3247 and onto the coast road, there is a car park at Freathy (PL10 1JJ).

From here a footpath leads down to Sharrow Point and the beach. Rather than taking the steps down to the beach head along the path towards the Coastguard/Lifeguard lookout on the headland, go down the slope cliff top passed it (carefully!) until you find some rough rock cut steps down to the platform below and to Sharrow Grot.

This is only for those who are fairly nimble and you should keep a close eye on children as there are sheer drops on either side.

Unfortunately due to vandalism the grot now has metal gates across the entrance, so you can’t actually get inside but it still worth visiting for the novelty and those stunning views!

Further Reading

The Fake Vicar of Talland Church

Napoleon Bonaparte in Cawsand Bay

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