Welcome to the Cuddy Porthcothan Bay on the Cornish Coast

The original Cuddy was built by the owner’s grandfather in 1911, starting out its life as timber huts clad with corrugated iron and wood. In nautical terms, the ‘cuddy’ means a cabin or a wheelhouse, and the house was decked out like a boat with bunk beds and tables with fiddles. Although the original Cuddy provided the family with a magical place by the sea, the huts slowly fell into disrepair, and in the 1980s the current owner Caroline (nicknamed Skimp), her father and her late husband decided to build a replacement house that would

Jack, an architect also passionate about boats and sailing, stuck to the nautical theme of the house, saving one of the original huts and converting it into bunk rooms, as well as incorporating nautical elements into the design of the main structure, with a timber frame and a spiral staircase. Jack also made it a priority that the house should blend in with its surroundings, so in common with traditional Cornish houses, slate was used for the exterior, and became the only house on the cliff that can’t be seen from afar.

The house was built almost single-handedly by a local builder and family friend, and although the naming of some of the rooms sometimes proved a little confusing (the electrician asking in consternation: “Ere, what are the heads?”) the new house was completed in 1990.