Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, Cornwall

If you ever stop to ponder how people managed to communicate in a world before email and iPhones, pay a visit to the place where it all began, Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. Discover the Victorian coded system that revolutionised communication forever and may well have won us the war. Budding sleuths will marvel at the mysterious enigmas used during the WWII to foil enemy spies as well as the worlds only original working cable station, so complete and untouched it is as if the workers have just popped out for lunch.

Star attractions So important were Porthcurno’s telegraph facilities during the war, the cable houses became something of a target and rather ingeniously were relocated underground. Explore the 70 year old subterranean tunnels hidden within the wild Cornish cliffs and experience for yourself the atmosphere of an undercover operation.

Family X-Factor Test your families deciphering aptitude and puzzle your way out of the interactive electronic maze activating switches with a special key and translating the Morse code collected along the way.

Not many people know this but…Porthcurno was the most important cable station in the world by WWII and one of only 2 beaches in the country that was defended by flame-throwers.

Don’t forget to pack Sandwiches and a blanket for a perfect picnic on the stunning south Cornwall coastline.

Special Events Scrabble for clues on the beach and then mark your territory with a suitably themed abode at the annual Porthcurno sandcastle competition on August 21.

Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, Eastern House, Porthcurno, Penzance, Cornwall TR19 6JX

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