Gooseham

Gooseham is a hamlet in the civil parish of Morwenstow, about 6 miles north of Bude and roughly a kilometre south of the Devon border. One resident reportedly described its size as “two houses and a wood rick” - an exaggeration, but one that captures the scale. The hamlet lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, surrounded by high farmland that drops sharply to dramatic cliff coastline.

Morwenstow parish - Cornwall’s most northerly - is best known as the home of the eccentric Victorian vicar and poet Robert Stephen Hawker, who served here from 1834 to 1875. Hawker wrote Cornwall’s unofficial anthem “Trelawny” and is credited with reviving the custom of Harvest Festival. His driftwood hut on the clifftop, where he composed much of his poetry, is now a National Trust landmark. The parish church of St Morwenna, with its Norman doorway, sits close to the cliff edge at the parish’s churchtown of Crosstown.

The Heritage Coast here is wild and largely undeveloped. The South West Coast Path runs along the full parish boundary, with some of the most exposed and dramatic cliff walking in Cornwall. Bude, with its beaches, canal and town amenities, is the nearest service centre. Hartland Point and the north Devon coast are close to the east. Gooseham appeals to visitors who want genuine rural isolation and serious coastal walking, well away from Cornwall’s busier tourist centres.