Clovelly Harbour, Devon · Travel Poster

Each poster comes with a letter home. Ella writes about the place, its hidden history, and the detail that never makes it into the guidebooks.

Clovelly's harbour is the reason the village exists at all. Along a stretch of North Devon coast so sheer and rock-strewn that there is no safe landing anywhere between Appledore and Boscastle, this one small curved quay is the only shelter for miles. Without it there would be no fishing, and without the fishing there would be no village clinging to the cliff above.

The curving stone pier was built in the late sixteenth century by George Cary of Clovelly Court, at his own expense, hauled together from boulders dragged off the foreshore at low tide. For centuries it kept a herring fleet safe, and Clovelly herrings were prized well beyond Devon. The quay has been lengthened and mended many times since, but it still curls into the bay exactly where Cary set it.

This poster is an original illustration in watercolour and ink, painted exclusively for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included.