Fascinated by shipwrecks? There’s the perfect museum for you in Cornwall’s Charlestown.
We all love the beautiful, sparkling seas around Cornwall. But beneath the surface, lie the reminders of the sea’s more treacherous side – 3,000 reminders, in fact. Maritime historians reckon there are over 3,000 shipwrecks around the Cornish coast, from the 17th-century Schiedam to the MV Cita, which was wrecked in 1997.
You can find out about these wrecks and hundreds more at the Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Charlestown. If you fancy finding out more about Cornwall’s submarine history, head here for enthralling tales of maritime disaster and discovery.
What’s the Shipwreck Treasure Museum?
The Shipwreck Treasure Museum is in the recently revamped Merchants of Charlestown building, in the historic harbour village.
Locals and regular visitors to Cornwall will remember it as the Charlestown Shipwreck & Heritage Centre. However, in 2016, Eden and Heligan founder Sir Tim Smit’s company acquired the Centre, and it’s had rather a makeover since then.
The Centre was famous for its incredible collection – it still has over 8,000 items from 150 shipwrecks. The focus of the museum is subtly different: it’s just as interested in the stories behind these finds as the objects themselves.
Visitors to the reopened Shipwreck Treasure Museum will find themselves immersed in a world of undersea stories of adventure, horror, tragedy and bravery. It’s some place.
What’s there to see at the Shipwreck Treasure Museum?
As we mentioned, the museum has an incredible treasure trove of artefacts. It’s an exhaustingly large collection; however it’s displayed so engagingly, that you quickly lose yourself in its tales.
Highlights include the only intact barrel of coins ever recovered from a shipwreck, and you can even lift a (very heavy) cannon ball. The objects take you into different worlds, sometimes uncomfortable ones (the history of enslaved people), and sometimes ones with great resonance today (such as the wreck of the Torrey Canyon and the resulting marine pollution).
The tunnels under the museum
If you don’t like enclosed spaces, stop reading now. Underneath the museum, you’ll find a network of old tunnels. These were built during Charlestown’s service as a busy china clay port (sorry, they’re not old smugglers’ tunnels). These have been reopened to visitors and form part of the museum’s display space.
Descend into the network of tunnels to find yourself in Shackleton’s world, in an exhibition dedicated to the explorer and his crew. Learn more about the famous Endurance expedition as you make your way through this subterranean gallery.
There’s also a display of Frank Hurley’s photographs of Endurance and her crew (in association with the Royal Geographical Society with IBG). This astonishing exhibition makes the expedition seem more immediate and real to today’s visitors.
Underwater archaeology
Related to the Shakleton exhibition, you can also visit Frozen In Time, a mainly photographic display about marine archaeology. The images (including such famous shipwrecks as RMS Titanic, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror (recently immortalised in BBC1’s drama, The Terror) and of course, Endurance) are incredible, and demonstrate how wrecks are discovered and documented.
Is there a cafe and shop at the Shipwreck Treasure Museum?
There certainly is! The Museum is part of the Merchants of Charlestown building. There are two restaurants in the Merchants of Charlestown complex: Rebellion and Dough Boys. The latter serves fantastic home-made pizza with great views of the harbour, while Rebellion is the place to go if you fancy a sneaky cocktail after your museum trip…
The Museum shop is a good mix of local crafts and pocket-money toys (think pirates and treasure themes).
What are the opening times and prices?
The Shipwreck Treasure Museum is open in the summer months, which in tourism speak means from the start of the Easter holidays until the end of October half term.
Opening times are daily, from 10 am until 5 pm, with the last ticket sold at 4 pm. It takes about one and a half to two hours to see everything, so bear that in mind when you plan your visit.
The entrance fees for the Shipwreck Treasure Museum are currently £8.50 for adults and £5 for children (2024 prices). Under 5s are free.
Good news – (leashed) dogs are also welcome in the museum.
What else is there to do in Charlestown?
Charlestown is a beautiful 18th-century harbour village near St Austell. It’s so unspoilt, that it often features in films that need authentic old docks. For example, Charlestown stood in for the Port of Truro (now silted up) in the latest BBC1 adaptation of the Poldark novels. It’s a beautiful, postcard-perfect place that’s among Cornwall’s most photogenic spots.
So, the second best thing to do in Charlestown after the museum is explore the harbour area, enjoying the rare sight of the tall ships. Then, stroll around the narrow cobbled streets of the village, popping into shops and galleries, or enjoying one of Charlestown’s pubs.
Charlestown is on the South West Coast Path, and the stretch from the harbour village to pretty Mevagissey is a popular walk. If you fancy sea air without quite that much exercise,
head down towards the shingly shore below the harbour (look out for the smugglers’ caves).
How do we get to the Shipwreck Treasure Museum?
The museum doesn’t have its own car park; however, Charlestown Car Park isn’t far. Its postcode is PL25 3NJ.
There’s a bus service from St Austell – find out more from FirstBus. If you’re travelling to St Austell by train, it’s about ten minutes by taxi from the station to Charlestown.
Charlestown is two miles by road from The Cornwall hotel, or you could enjoy the stroll down to the coast. Either way, it’s definitely a place to put on your Must-See list for your Cornish holiday!