Our Story

This long established pub, situated at the head of Restronguet Creek in Devoran

We adjacent to the coast-to-coast cycle and walking trail has been enjoying a renaissance under the helm of John and Hannah Calland. We are celebrating 10 years at the Old Quay Inn this year. It is a popular place with visitors and locals alike. 

We have a terraced garden at the back which has been turned into a special space. A true hidden gem. Our garden borders the Devoran Creek, perfect for relaxing on lazy summer evenings.

The Old Quay Inn remains a real pub, where you're just as welcome to enjoy a decent pint of ale at the bar as a exquisite three course meal. In the winter we have a roaring fire too.

We really look forward to welcoming you to our beautiful pub.

A bit of history, the Devoran Railway

The 9-mile railway, officially known as the Redruth & Chacewater railway, was Cornwall’s first true railway. Opened on the 30th of January 1826 to supply coal & timber for the mines, whilst bringing tin & copper ores to the quay at Devoran. The line also had a few other branches, one opened in 1827 was a mile-long extension from Devoran to Point, interestingly although this now tarred road is locally know as ‘The Tram’ it was always a horse worked branch of the railway, not a tram.

Cornwall’s first recorded use of rails was in a mine near Pentewan, St Austell in the 1700’s, while Cornwall’s first line was the 1809 built Portreath to Poldice plateway, using ‘L’ shaped plates and non-flanged wheels, this plateway fell out of use in the mid 1860’s with the plates being removed circa 1882. It is wrong to call these two lines ‘tramways’ as Cornwall only had one tramway that of Camborne & Redruth, that followed the ‘old’ A30.

Devoran was always headquarters of the ‘R&C’ with the village built circa 1830-1860’s. To cater for the rail & maritime creek side area, Devoran was Cornwall’s busiest port from 1840 to 1870 and barely held ‘township’ status, the 3⁄4 mile of quays and docks were served by many shops, chandlers and five pubs and even a brothel (the local Methodists thought there to be a soup kitchen.

The busiest year was 1865 with 97000 tons or wagon loads was moved by the but due to cheaper copper available from South America, the lines fortune dwindled such that the was placed in receivership on the 9th of July 1879, until closure that came on the 25th of September 1915 when the last revenue train ran, in July 1918 the company was wound up, after 36 years in receivership.

Although the was entirely horse worked from 1826 to 1854, 3 steam locomotives took over, called Miner, Smelter & Spitfire. During 1919/20 Miner was resurrected to bring the scrap rails back down to an area near the harbourmaster’s office which was near the bottom of Market Street and then moving her two sisters and the wagons to be broken up and eventually suffering the same fate. The final act was to destroy the 3⁄4 mile of quay edges to prevent future use.

It is hard today to envisage the 100’s of ships, barges and men that worked at Devoran just over a century ago, although they would never have believed all the shops and pubs have now closed – except this one!