Bodmin Jail Attraction Omdömen 92

It is solely a theme park. Poldark on steroids and essentially a glorified ghost train. The special effects are amazing but I would have liked to have seen much more of the jail with more constructive information and jail plan. Eg. Where were the kitchens? And got no feel for the daily routine. Jails are grim but no proper lighting to see the architecture of the prison.

Very disappointed with the cafe. Second visit to jail bringing overseas guests. cafe service is dreadful.

Ordered 4 x cream teas at a whopping £8.00 each - no problem happy to do so. However were told a cold latte coffee was not part of the cream tea and had to buy two of these separately.

Latte's at extra cost arrived in pint beer glasses as they had no other suitable coffee glasses and no straws. Looked awful drinking an iced latte from a beer glass.

Waitress, new to cafe, could not understand that with 4 of us we did not want 6 drinks and that that lattes were coffees with ice - surely they could be included in cream tea??

Asked for two americanos no milk - both arrived half filed and with milk on the side. Asked for extra water to fill cups - received a jug of cold water and glasses

Scones were warm, cream ok but looked whipped not clotted with blackcurrant jam.

Overall not great for £36.50 - last time we were charged £5.00 per cookie as they had no coffee and cake offer.

Over priced, dreadful service

It's all very false. From the start in the architect's "library" with fake books in the walls and then a descent down stairs to see walls lined with fossils, and in a Cornish tin mine....it's primarily how Disney would have done a Cornish Theme set - throw in tales of smugglers, Beast of Bodmin, shipwrecks. I didn't feel that I had actually visited the jail at all. I felt I had visited a fantasy show dabbling in familiar Cornish folklore. I had visited the jail a few years ago prior to this "revamp" and felt the jail had been more atmospheric and back then, without these recent trappings to appease the tourists, it actually gave a better sense of the scale of the jail and its grim and forbidding nature. Much of the jail was not accessed on my visit (probably a hotel/flats now) and this is a shame. To visit effectively a single wing of cells and a few admin rooms is a far cry from the access enjoyed years ago when there were multiple floors and staircases in a maze of cold granite which gave a better sense of "prison" than any immersive and fake experience with screen-projected badly acted characters pretending to be Cornish. We enjoyed it but only in an ironic sense at the kitsch of it all. Shame. I shall satisfy myself with the memories of the jail before this revamp as that was when it was genuinely chilling and its dark dank maze perhaps was the best chance this place had of inspiring a sense of haunting - I suspect the ghosts have now left out of embarrassment.

The carol service was beautiful. And the staff were all lovely, happy and chatty keeping in mind they were stood outside in the freezing.
Lovely experience, looking forward to coming back and having an afternoon tea in the restaurant.

We visited Bodmin Jail yesterday and our tour guide, Gemma, was very informative, respectful, interesting and articulate. We visited as a party of 4, two adults, with a ten year old and an 8 year old. It was a tour suitable for 8 and overs. The sets and the filmings were very good. However, we visited the Naval Wing which are actual prison cells, but made aesthetically pleasing for the tour, and fairly dark. My experience, whilst in there, is that I felt all my energy draining away, got incredibly tired, and a feeling of heaviness. Still feel that way today. It affected the other adult the same way. We were looking forward to sitting down in the restaurant after, with cuppa to recover 😀 The tour was very good and I would highly recommend, but would just say, to be mindful of how it might affect you. Thank you for an interesting experience and, to Gemma, for her reassuring attitude and conversation with the children. Very good tour guide.

It seems from the reviews attached ‘love it or hate it’. We loved it simply because it was something different while on holiday. The special affects where excellent on light shows and the children were very happy. Friendly opinion would be a family friendly cafe is required for teas and coffees and maybe for light lunch as the restaurant is a bit fine dining. Would recommend going to say you have been.

We were so excited to visit Bodmin jail - we love nothing more than exploring historic places and soaking up the history and atmosphere that is often present.

Sadly, Bodmin Jail held none of that for us . From the moment we arrived and were asked if we were on the guided tour, to which our response was no, we’re self guided - well unfortunately, that does mean that you’re required to wait approximately 10 minutes for the more important guided tour despite your booked time. I’m heavily pregnant with a misaligned pelvis which is painful and there was no seating available as all 3 seats been taken by perfectly able bodied customers, whilst myself and other clearly struggling people stood. Still, not the end of the world.

We were finally ‘allowed’ through and had to wait for the light show to start, which was actually really impressive!! What I could see if it anyway. There were approximately 40+ people in a rather confined space and so, unless you pushed your way to the front, you couldn’t see. You also couldn’t proceed until it was done and so just had to stand and wait. We saw bits but there was lots of pushing and jostling - I’m heavily pregnant so not really going to do that.

Finally we’re were able to go and see the cells, of which there aren’t too many available to look around. Very interesting but hugely spoilt by the guided tour that was taking centre stage in a relatively small space with their guide shouting at our self guided tour to go around them and we could come back once her group had finished. She took about 20 minutes to actually finish and there was really nowhere else for our group to go!! She shouted at us about 5 times and by the end I was very offended by her rudeness.

Once they’d moved there was a rush to see all that they had been blocking so it was back to jostling with a huge group of strangers - there were more by then as the next group had come down. In total in the cell area, there must have been at least 60 visitors. It was rather like being a prisoner myself, although this wasn’t the experience I was looking for.

We ended our tour in a hurry as it had taken so long, we’d had to wait numerous times for the more important guided tour and the parking only allowed 3 hours at a maximum.

There was a sign asking could we feel any presence - no! Any atmosphere was completely taken away by the sheer number of people and noise - it was so loud!!

I paid for 8 people to enter Bodmin Jail at a very high price for the actual hurried experience, once we were done waiting for various crowds.

I would suggest making the groups smaller and running the guided tours separately - the crowds were a complete health and safety hazard in a small space with only one set of stairs and an extremely slow lift to escape in the event of an emergency. That number of people would severely affect the outcome in such a situation.

I’m sorry to say they’ve ruined Bodmin Jail, which is such a huge shame.

We did the “Walking with Witches” tour yesterday and it was absolutely amazing. It was creepy in all the ways it needed to be and very respectful of the witches of the past. The staff are lovely, very knowledgable and Jess especially did a truly amazing job. That kind of charisma and ability to keep the attention of a room.. is rare. thank you.

Same as all the other bad reviews, place is a joke. We paid for guided tours and never got them. Drove over a hour each way to get to the prison as our son really wanted to go.
Sent a email complaint, she told us we should of paid for guided tour tickets, when my partner explained we had and sent the ticket confirmation asking for a refund we were then ignored.
Now going to take it up with the card company, no customer service, took literally half a hour to walk around. Absolute joke not worth going to and at around £80 for the family it wasnt worth it at all

We visited on 30th July 2022 after hearing how good it was from people who had been previously, notably before the 'upgrade'. The upgraded experience, i am sorry to say, has completely ruined the experience. The side show you have to walk through could have been used to eet the scene be fore entering and walking around the old jail. What you actually get is a series of rooms with automated videos giving some story of the area and how you may have ended up in jail ( and you get sprayed with water to imitate sea spray). You then get to enter a very small portion of the jail itself, a short corridor with about 10 cells. Most of the cells cannot be accessed, have poor lighting and have cut outs of people who may have been around the jail. It was also very crowded with other visitors. But what it doesn't have is any sense of atmosphere or feeling of the place. There is no opportunity to sit and take it, as you feel ushered to get through as quick as possible.
Once through, we thought we would treat ourselves to cream tea at what looked to be their fancy restaurant. Another disappointment, whilst there was nothing especially wrong with the food/drink, the particularly dry scones and run of the mill coffee and tea did not match up to the surroundings or inflated price.

All in all not worth spending hard earned money on. The jail is virtually all taken over by the hotel leaving little for visitors to see. The new extension adds nothing to the experience as there is nothing of the jail to actually really see. The restaurant, well just follows the rest of the experience. Total disappointment.

Went there several years ago, parking was actually at the premises and the jail was authentic and haunting with well placed mannequins in cells depicting the horror of the times and the conditions prisoners were faced with. Shock the new face-lift has destroyed all of the history just to have a hotel and huge commercial enterprise taking away the proper visitor experience. The interactive part was OK but the jail not even remotely as good as it once was. Cafe seemed purely for the hotel so we went elsewhere for food and drinks. Whole experience poor and huge dissapointment. Poor value for money and whole thing took just over 1 hour.

Heavily dissatisfied with this place. Came over 20 years ago, expected changes of course but was so much grittier before and realistic. Felt the renovations and focus is now heavily on the hotel and restaurant rather than the visitor experience and history of this place. The virtual tour was disappointing and short. The staff at the start are friendly and give you the impression of being immersed into an experience where you build on your excitement only to come out after a short time underwhelmed. The murder investigation involvement led to no conclusion and we didn't feel involved at all. Having had to pay for the car park also and only get 4 hours we were only there for 1.5 hours. Wanted to try the restaurant outside but didn't seem welcoming and too formal so we thought it may just be for hotel guests. Couldn't wait to leave and won't be back, gutted!!

Both myself and my Partner visited the Jail yesterday and were very impressed, The Tavern is really well priced and quality of food is great. The Staff were veery friendly, knowledgable and helpful. The virtual part of the tour actually reminded me of something out of universal studios, was that good!. Now as for spooks! My partner went into the toilets on the left side of the main entrance. She closed the door. I’m stood outside waiting for her and about 5 minutes later the door opened. No one exited! It took me about a mini Ute to think something was not right so I went and closed the door, it’s a heavy door and a heavy handle! No way is that door going to open due to wind! So there you have it, There are spooks abound!

My wife and I recently visited the Bodmin jail and attended the guided tour with a French tour guide. She was so friendly, knowledgeable regarding the jail history and made the tour so enjoyable. The tour was worth the price and I can only encourage anyone visiting Cornwall to make this as one of the tours on your list.

Fantastic Must See Attraction !

Super friendly staff , amazing clean and Covid safe environment. The building has been beautifully restored and offers a unique and immersive experience for all the family.

My children range from 23 to 6 years old and although some younger children may be a little scared mine thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our visit. So nice to see an attraction that has been given genuine investment and gone above and beyond to offer something different.

Gift shop has a lovely range of souvenirs and gifts. The restaurant / cafe in the courtyard looked so inviting and was very clean.

We all loved the dark walk and the way each inmates story was presented. This was not only a great day out , but also very educational.

I really hope people visit and support this great addition to Cornwall’s tourist attractions.

We visited Bodmin jail on the 9th september whilst we enjoyed the visit and found it a good historical experience but sadly we thought it has now become to commercialised it has lost all of the old atmosphere the group we were part of we felt was to large for the environment and small spaces which detoured you from reading and less time to enjoy the attraction fully.

Dear sir/madam

We have recently stayed with your hotel,
It was our anniversary wich is why I ordered flowers and chocolates to the room for my partner.
However the stay was the worst we have ever had,the hotel itself is lovely and can’t complain about the room,but the staff on the other hand are very rude and need some serious training in regards to customer service,the way they spoke to my partner was disgusting I’m very disappointed tbh I’m still fuming about it.
We wasn’t shown to the room nobody helped us with our luggage.the staff didn’t even know we’re our room was,we had 2 dogs with us was just handed the room key as was told the room is on 1 of the floors.
We put the dogs in there room and asked the receptionist we’re abouts the restaurant was and she sent us to the wrong floor we finally found the restaurant,as was left standing by the entrance for 15mins wile waiters looked at us walking back and forwards to the kitchen and bar area. It wasn’t until I went to the bar and asked could we have a table please. Considering this was our anniversary not a good start. We ordered some drinks wich took 20mins to arrive to the table and wasn’t brought any menus again I went to the bar and asked for some menus.
We ordered starters as soon as we picked up our forks manager entered and SAID GAVE YOU TOO FOT TO DOGS
We yes she then replied well there barking so you need to leave the restaurant,my partner said what can we do regarding our dinner,she replied you can sit out side or in your room,I said it’s cold outside and there isn’t a table or chairs in the room to eat dinner.
She replied well in that case you will have to eat it on your bed 😡
I’m not happy with this and how we have been treated I’m so disappointed it was our anniversary.
I feel very let down.

Blown away. Decided to book this as the kids picked as an activity on our way back from Cornwall on our holidays. I was unsure as we have Lincoln Castle and Prison locally to us which we have visited many times and wasn’t sure if it would be much different. What can i say, it was brilliant and a fantastic two hours. The interactivity kept the kids on their toes ( not giving the surprises away) and they both (12 y/o girl and 15 y/o boy) said it was the best part of the holiday. It wasn’t busy despite the rest of Cornwall being so. The restaurant was lovely for a meal afterwards and all thoroughly enjoyed. I can not recommend it enough, make sure you leave yourself 2-3 hours to enjoy it all properly.

Went in 2009 and it was brilliant, was so excited to be going back. What a load of rubbish!! They have completely ruined the place. Totally commercialised it. Ruined the history of it and the structure. Absolute waste of money, fuming is a understatement! Will never be returning.

Absolutely disappointed in this place, somewhat like spraying a rose with plastic coating then spraying the petals with pine disinfectant, would be better suited in a sports hall in a council estate, remove all this added Junk bring back the historic value to this building, even the stories seem de sensitised as not to scare the people from the real truths people pay to here ... disappointed... gift shop somewhat bland, cafe was very un appealing but clean.. never again sorry