The Ship Inn, Penzance

Popped over to Mousehole on the request of Mrs Quinno for its silly name. The number 6 bus from Penzance is a nice trip but good grief I wouldn't want to be the driver when it gets into the village proper trying to navigate the tight corners! So after a sun-soaked walk around the town and harbour it was time to take in the pub - it isn't listed in the GBG so it was a little bit of a gamble - but was glad I did. There's the full St Austell range (sparklerised) and the two halves I had of the four available were in good nick, so no complaints there. The drinkers part of the pub is fairly basic, stone walls, flagstone floor with some maritime touches scattered around and pictures of seafaring yore alongside some narrative regarding a lost lifeboat crew (one of whom was a former landlord of the place), so doff your cap to them while you're there. Mousehole is a proper Cornish tick-box visit and I guess that the pub certainly knows that the trade is coming in the peak season - the slightly elevated room was all set up for diners. Didn't sample the food but it sounded good. All-in-all, well-worth the jaunt.

On the edge of the attractive fishing harbour of Mousehole - pronounced "muzzle" apparently - is The Ship Inn, seemingly the only pub is this small contact Cornish coastal village. Looking at the pub across the harbour, the granite exterior reminds me very much of the type of pub you might come across in the North Yorks Moors, or, alternatively, a West Yorkshire town like Ilkley or Otley. On the wall outside the pub, a plaque commemorates the landlord, who was part of the crew of the Solomon Browne lifeboat which perished with the loss of all lives in December 1981 - The Penlee disaster, as it's better known as. Inside is the trademark flagstoned floor and black beams and collection of nautical memorabilia, including, most notably, various pictures of The Torrey Canyon, which ran aground in the area on Seven Stones Reef in March 1967. A cosier room on the left is carpeted, with comfortable bench seating around the walls and a copper bar top. There's a separate restaurant area on the right. Reflecting the fact that the pub needs to get customers in after the visitors have departed for the day ( and there seems to be precious little in the way of B & B's for those wishing to stay overnight ), there's a couple of fruit machines and TV screens for Sky Sports, but, thankfully, these weren't on during my recent lunchtime visit. Plastic glasses are available should anyone wish to drink outside at the front on the narrow road, which, perhaps surprisingly, is not closed to traffic, although the frequent reversing to allow cars coming the other way to pass, makes for slow progress. There's a small sun terrace at the back up a flight of stairs, but this has no sea view and is of limited appeal. It's a St Austell's Brewery pub and, on my recent lunchtime visit, beers on were Tinners, Proper Job, Tribute and HSD. The Tinners - £ 2.60p - was fine. Given its location, this pub probably doesn't have to make too much effort to get people in, but I thought this pub came up to the mark in all areas

Caught the number 6 bus from Penzance to visit this pub, and it is in a charming location. Friendly staff served 4 St Austell beers, Tribute, Tinners, Proper Job and HSD, and the beers we had were fine. Has a rooftop patio area nicely set out.

The Ship's position overlooking one of Cornwall's most picturesque fishing harbours is a big enough draw to make it one of the counties must visit pubs. It has all the trimmings of a traditional old fishermans pub, the flag stoned floors, low beamed ceilings, lanterns and open fires coupled with the modern touristy trinkets of maritime memorabelia, model boats and stories of shipwrecks. The Ship itself has had its own share of maritime tragedy in that the former landlord was part of the crew of the Penlee Lifeboat disaster in 1981 and his memory is commerorated on a placque on the outside wall. For all its apparent charm, the interior is a bit too open, expanded and impersonal for my liking and dare I say, a little bit too geared for tourists although not as “in your face” as many other similar harbour pubs I came across on my travels. There is a large dining section which thankfully does not intrude into the main body of the pub and a smaller side room at one end of the bar. The main bar area extends to a darts area at the rear with built in pew seating and a TV. Stairs lead up to a rather secretive beer garden which I did not explore. The front seats overlook the historic and extremely photogenic harbour where you can watch the boats come and go on the tide. The beers are from the St Austell range with an above average selection that consisted of Tinners, IPA, Tribute and HSD on my visit and were decent quality and not unreasonably priced. Service was fine and even though my most recent visit was an off season lunchtime, there was still a few friendly locals and the ubiquitous dog to pet. For pub enthusiasts the Ship is a worthwhile excursion if in the area and, fine place as it is, it just lacks that little extra to make it a true classic.

Really good local pub, especially now that they no longer compete with the "posh" restaurants and just do very good pub grub. Well kept St Austells ales, visit drink and enjoy.