The Driftwood Spars was built in the 1650s out of ship’s spars salvaged off the local wrecks, which is where the name came from and also why the beams look the way they do. The building has been a tin mining warehouse, a chandlery, a sail loft and a fish cellar since, before anyone thought to put a bar in it.
It sits above Trevaunance Cove at St Agnes on the north Cornish coast, three bars deep with a wood burner in each, and it brews its own beer across the road. The brewery opened in 2000, runs a five barrel plant, and everything it makes is gluten free. The beer travels from brewery door to cellar in a matter of yards.
The one to order is Alfie’s Revenge, a red ale named after a stuffed red squirrel that used to sit in the bar. It has taken Supreme Champion Winter Ale of Great Britain, which is a lot of hardware for a beer named after taxidermy. Out in the beer garden there is also the Crib Shack, a converted shipping container doing snacks and coffee.
