Funny name, Finnygook, but a great location

The cliff, the sea and the sky at Finnygook Beach, Cornwall. (SPTiley photo)

If one is looking up a word referring to something in Cornwall on the internet and can’t find it, just add the word smuggler to the search, and, like as not, up she comes.

It was just so as I looked for the derivation of finnygook, the name of a beach and an inn on the Cornish coast. Nothing at all came up except references to the Finnygook Inn, until I added smuggler to my search . Then―aha!―I got this from the Society of International Nature & Wildlife blog about a Cornwall ramble:

Our landlord had suggested a restaurant just up the road called Finnygook. A name derived from the ghost of a murdered smuggler who supposedly still roams the narrow streets of the vicinity at night. An open fireplace was crackling inside and the steak was one of the best I’ve tasted.

Brandy, lace and tobacco
Or, I could have just visited the website of the Finnygook Inn, and unearthed the information that there was a notorious smuggler locally named Silas Finny. As thieves will, he and his mates fell out over a cargo of brandy, lace and tobacco at nearby Whitsand Bay. Finny turned the 18^th century version of state’s evidence…and was, not surprisingly, later killed for his trouble after some of his former comrades in theft were deported to Australia’s Botany Bay. The website notes that, at the time “the Governor General was Captain Bligh of Bounty fame. They did not have an enjoyable time.”

That settles Finny. But what about gook? No, it has nothing to do with the execrable American slang word for an Asian human being. Simply, it’s the local vernacular for ghost. Silas Finny’s “gook” is still blamed for odd happenings locally, although why the ghost of a double-dealing criminal should feel entitled to haunt anyone, I have no idea.

Singing about ghosts and doodoo

But apparently, he haunted singer Pete Langford right into a singing a cunning ditty.

You have to love a song with the word turds in it.  BTW, a pasty (pronounced pass-tee) is a Cornish pocket bread, all zipped up with meat and veg inside, a sort of carryable anytime, anywhere picnic.

Cornish pasty (Wiki commons)

We haven’t yet dined at the Finnygook Inn, but last week, while seeking a cup of coffee and a bit of a view, we found the brand new Gook Beach Café at the top of Portwrinkle. It has a wonderful view of the cliffs and the ocean, and darn good carrot cake and coffee. Best of all, despite its seaside location, it will stay open all year. The thought of lunching with a view of massive waves in deep December might make that cold month more bearable, at least to those of us who seem to be happiest when clinging like a limpet to the edge of an island or a continent.