Mousehole is a fishing village on Mount's Bay, about 2.5 miles south of Penzance, with St Clement's Isle lying just off the harbour mouth. In Kernewek it is Porthenys, the old spelling in the records from 1267; the village is first mentioned as Mousehole in 1283, and pilchards were being exported from its quay to France by 1302.
1595
In 1595 the raid on Mount's Bay by Carlos de Amésquita burned the village. The Keigwin Arms was the only building left standing, and a plaque records Squire Jenkyn Keigwin, killed there on 23 July that year.
The lifeboat
The Penlee lifeboat station opened in 1913. On 19 December 1981 its crew of eight was lost while answering a call in hurricane-force winds, and since 1981 the village's Christmas lights are switched off each 19 December in their memory. The lifeboat itself moved to Newlyn in 1983.
Winter customs
On 23 December each year Mousehole keeps Tom Bawcock's Eve, marking the end of a famine in the sixteenth century, with stargazy pie at its centre. Dolly Pentreath, often named as the last recorded speaker of Cornish, lived from 1692 to 1777 and is often claimed for Mousehole, though the record places her in the neighbouring parish of Paul.
Sources
Last checked: 2026-10-11