After the extensive damage caused by a flash flood in 2004, a restoration programme was undertaken to return Boscastle to its rightful place as one of the glories of the north Cornish coast. A natural harbour, protected from the Atlantic by a sharp bend at the mouth of the Valency river, Boscastle has been home to fishermen for centuries. It was also a favourite place of the poet Thomas Hardy, who met his first wife on the cliffs above the town, and refers to many local landmarks in what is generally regarded as his finest verse – the poems written in her memory after her death.
