History
The site is a derelict 11 bedroom hotel with beautiful sea views, in the Port Gaverne area, near Port Isaac, Cornwall.
The 3rd Earl Fortescue, from Devon, owned the land in the late 19th Century. It's known to have been sold again, in 1946, to a woman named Mary Edith Appleton.
The Headlands Hotel was open for 22 years, and closed in 2011. It was used as a filming location for the television series Doc Martin, as well as being a popular holiday destination.
The hotel was originally offered for sale, at a price of £2.5M. In November 2011, the Taylor family, who run a pharmacy in Warwickshire, bought the site for £1.6M. In January 2015, Cornwall county council gave planning permission for the building to be demolished, and a larger 20 room hotel to be built on the site. To date, work has not begun.
Explore
Struggling heroically through summer holiday traffic, I eventually managed to park the van right outside the site, in Cornwall's last remaining parking spot. I was on my way from a campsite in Bude to the granite sea cliffs of Bosigran, which I was very much looking forward to climbing, but I'd see previous reports from the site, so it seemed like a nice way to break up the journey.
The site is clearly showing its age, with the local teenagers having given it a good coat of low-quality graff. More recently, someone has been along with a wrecking bar and nicked the wiring out of some of the walls. Furniture upended and toilets smashed, the Headlands Hotel offers a derelict and vandalised feel, starkly contrasting with the 22 years of holidays and honeymoons it must once have seen.
A number of artefacts remain on site, including an old intercom handset, beer mats, and a rusted toaster. The kitchen still has its spice rack, and a massive tub of mustard that is presumably no longer viable. Some of the beds still have their original bedding.
The site is a derelict 11 bedroom hotel with beautiful sea views, in the Port Gaverne area, near Port Isaac, Cornwall.
The 3rd Earl Fortescue, from Devon, owned the land in the late 19th Century. It's known to have been sold again, in 1946, to a woman named Mary Edith Appleton.
The Headlands Hotel was open for 22 years, and closed in 2011. It was used as a filming location for the television series Doc Martin, as well as being a popular holiday destination.
The hotel was originally offered for sale, at a price of £2.5M. In November 2011, the Taylor family, who run a pharmacy in Warwickshire, bought the site for £1.6M. In January 2015, Cornwall county council gave planning permission for the building to be demolished, and a larger 20 room hotel to be built on the site. To date, work has not begun.
Explore
Struggling heroically through summer holiday traffic, I eventually managed to park the van right outside the site, in Cornwall's last remaining parking spot. I was on my way from a campsite in Bude to the granite sea cliffs of Bosigran, which I was very much looking forward to climbing, but I'd see previous reports from the site, so it seemed like a nice way to break up the journey.
The site is clearly showing its age, with the local teenagers having given it a good coat of low-quality graff. More recently, someone has been along with a wrecking bar and nicked the wiring out of some of the walls. Furniture upended and toilets smashed, the Headlands Hotel offers a derelict and vandalised feel, starkly contrasting with the 22 years of holidays and honeymoons it must once have seen.
A number of artefacts remain on site, including an old intercom handset, beer mats, and a rusted toaster. The kitchen still has its spice rack, and a massive tub of mustard that is presumably no longer viable. Some of the beds still have their original bedding.