Welcome to the Old Sail Loft Restaurant Looe

One of the oldest buildings in Looe, still largely preserved in its original form, the cellar and loft are known to date back at least 450 years. Reputed to be a former haunt for smugglers and sea faring men of the 16th Century, it was then known locally as “The Run” probably due to it's time honoured association with smuggling which was rife along the Cornish coast.

Sitting in the snug comfort of the very special atmosphere generated by no small part by it's historical associations, it is not difficult to imaging the old sailing boats of the early 1500s moored to the quay outside. Glance at the original beams and roof trusses built of old English oak, some of them said to have been salvaged from the timbers of local wrecks.

From its earliest, used as a general quayside warehouse, probably to store diverse types of goods including a large proportion of contraband merchandise. In more recent years the building has been used, amongst other things, for pilchard processing, barrel making, sail making, grain and coal storage.

During the extensive clearing and renovation work to restore and convert the building to it's present use, many interesting features and relics of the past have been unearthed. Amongst these were cannonballs, hand made glass bottles and the very old fireplace, today fired by more modern methods! In the restoration of parts of the original thick “cobb” walls, nooks, and crannies revealed a fascinating mixture of old bones, sea and nutshells. Good authority has since established that these were very often incorporated in the structure of buildings of the period in an effort to satisfy local superstition in warding off evil spirits. These were embedded in the wall and were revealed by chance by a previous owner upon finding loose stones covering the “hideaway”.