Specialist museum · founded 1951 · Boscastle, Cornwall, United Kingdom

The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic

The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic is the world’s largest collection of objects, books, and artefacts related to European witchcraft, folk magic, ceremonial magic, and Wicca, housed in a converted building in the harbour village of Boscastle on the north Cornwall coast. Founded by Cecil Williamson in 1951, the museum passed through several locations before settling permanently in Boscastle in 1960, surviving the catastrophic 2004 flash flood that devastated the village and has since been restored and expanded.

At a glance

Type: Specialist folk magic and witchcraft museum
Period: Founded 1951; permanent Boscastle site since 1960; collection spans medieval to modern
Style: Converted harbour building; village setting
Location: The Harbour, Boscastle, Cornwall PL35 0HD, United Kingdom
Coordinates: 50.6906° N, 4.6971° W

Overview

The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic holds the largest publicly accessible collection of witchcraft-related objects in the world, encompassing ritual tools, protective charms, witch bottles, poppets, occult manuscripts, and objects associated with Wicca, Freemasonry, and ceremonial magic traditions. The collection embraces both the practitioner’s perspective — presenting magic as a living tradition — and the historical study of persecution, folklore, and belief. It attracts visitors from across the world, many drawn by personal spiritual interest alongside those motivated by historical and anthropological curiosity.

History

Cecil Williamson opened the first iteration of the museum on the Isle of Man in 1951, in collaboration with Gerald Gardner, the founding figure of modern Wicca, though the two parted ways shortly afterwards. After relocating through Windsor and Bourton-on-the-Water, Williamson established the museum in Boscastle in 1960. He sold it in 1996 to Graham King, who substantially expanded the collection and academic engagement. In August 2004 the village of Boscastle was devastated by a flash flood; the museum suffered significant damage but the core collection survived, and the building was restored and reopened. The museum is now run by the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft Trust.

What you see

Exhibits are arranged thematically across the historic building, covering cunning folk and village healers, protective magic and witch bottles embedded in old houses, curse objects, ceremonial and Hermetic traditions, the Wicca movement, and the history of the witch trials. Thousands of individual objects fill densely curated cases alongside handwritten manuscripts and rare printed texts. The atmospheric harbour-side setting — a narrow building overlooking Boscastle’s stone jetty — enhances the experience of stepping into an unusual and immersive collection.

Cultural significance

The museum is unique in treating European magical traditions as a legitimate subject of heritage preservation rather than mere curiosity or sensationalism, and its collection has become an important primary source for academic researchers studying folk religion, gender history, and the witch trials. Its survival of the 2004 Boscastle flood has become part of its story, framing the institution as itself a resilient keeper of threatened knowledge. The museum’s commitment to presenting living magical traditions alongside historical material challenges conventional distinctions between heritage and living culture.

Practical information

Address: The Harbour, Boscastle, Cornwall PL35 0HD
Hours: Seasonal opening; check official website for current times (closed some winter months)
Admission: Small paid admission; concessions available
Website: museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk

Getting there

Boscastle is a village on the north Cornwall coast, approximately 35 km south-west of Bude and 15 km north of Tintagel. The nearest rail station is Bodmin Parkway (approximately 40 km south), from which taxis or connecting buses serve the area. Most visitors arrive by car via the B3263; the National Trust car park at the top of the village is a short walk from the harbour and museum.

Sources & resources

Find it on the map

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In a tiny town in Cornwall, a beautiful English region with a history full of legends and bizarre characters, is this small but important museum, which houses the largest collection of artifacts related to witchcraft.

Witches? Yes, you got it right.

The lady who opened it in 1951 (originally on the Isle of Man) was a great lover of potions and occult books, and she thought it best to collect all her &quot;souvenirs&quot; in one place available to enthusiasts and the curious. If you are planning a trip to these parts, behave yourself: you can&#39;t mess with witches!



The&nbsp;Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, formerly known as the&nbsp;Museum of Witchcraft, is a museum dedicated to European&nbsp;witchcraft&nbsp;and&nbsp;magic&nbsp;located in the village of&nbsp;Boscastle&nbsp;in&nbsp;Cornwall, south-west England. It houses exhibits devoted to&nbsp;folk magic,&nbsp;ceremonial magic,&nbsp;Freemasonry, and&nbsp;Wicca, with its collection of such objects having been described as the largest in the world.



The museum was founded by the English folk magician&nbsp;Cecil Williamson&nbsp;in 1951 to display his own personal collection of artefacts. Initially known as the Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft, it was located in the town of&nbsp;Castletown&nbsp;on the&nbsp;Isle of Man. Williamson was assisted at the museum by the prominent Wiccan&nbsp;Gerald Gardner, who remained there as &quot;resident witch&quot;. After their friendship deteriorated, Gardner purchased it from Williamson in 1954, renaming it the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft. Gardner&#39;s Castletown museum remained open until the 1970s, when Gardner&#39;s heir Monique Wilson sold its contents to the&nbsp;Ripley&#39;s&nbsp;company.



In 1954, Williamson opened his own rival back in England, known as the Museum of Witchcraft. Its first location was at&nbsp;Windsor, Berkshire, and the next at&nbsp;Bourton-on-the-Water,&nbsp;Gloucestershire; in both cases it faced violent opposition and Williamson felt it necessary to move, establishing the museum in Boscastle in 1960.



In 1996 Williamson sold the museum to Graham King, who incorporated the Richel collection of magical regalia from the Netherlands in 2000. The museum was damaged and part of its collection lost during the&nbsp;Boscastle flood of 2004. In 2013 ownership was transferred to Simon Costin and his&nbsp;Museum of British Folklore.



The museum is a popular tourist attraction and is held in high esteem by the British occult community. A charity, Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft, has been established to raise funds for the exhibits. The museum also contains a large library on related topics that is accessible to researchers.



After the Second World War, the former film producer Cecil Williamson decided to move into the museum sector and, probably influenced by personal interest, he decided to open one dedicated to the theme of witchcraft. Williamson tried to open a museum to preserve his collection of occult and witchcraft artifacts in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1947, but faced local opposition and had to abandon his plans.



He then decided to open it in Castletown on the Isle of Man, an area that had much folklore surrounding fairies and witches, a tourist season, and local laws that were congenial to setting up a museum. He had it installed in an old dilapidated mill known locally as the Witches Mill which he had purchased in 1948 and, on the advice of his wife, opened an adjacent restaurant, known as the Witches&#39; Kitchen.

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