Smugglers Adventure occupies St Clement’s Caves, a system of galleries and chambers cut into the sandstone of the West Hill above Hastings Old Town.
The caves are the attraction. Roughly four acres of passages, chambers and halls in soft Ashdown sandstone, partly natural fissure, largely hand-cut — some of it by quarrymen taking sand, some of it enlarged in the nineteenth century, and the whole of it used at one time or another for storage, concealment and eventually entertainment.
Sussex in the eighteenth century ran on free trade, which is what everybody involved called it. Duties on tea, brandy, gin, tobacco, silk and lace were high enough that running them in from France was worth the risk, and the coast between Hastings and Rye was one of the busiest smuggling shores in England.
The organised gangs — the Hawkhurst Gang in particular — were not romantic figures. They were violent, well-armed and capable of intimidating whole towns, and the Revenue’s response was correspondingly brutal.
The caves’ role in this is more atmospheric than documented: they are exactly the kind of place contraband would have been kept, and the tradition is old, but the hard evidence is thinner than the presentation suggests. Take the storytelling as storytelling.
What is documented is that by the 1820s the caves were being run as a show cave — a Victorian tourist attraction with a ballroom, concerts and guided tours. Entertainment has been their main business for two centuries.
A walk-through of the caverns with tableaux, sound and lighting effects, projections and a costumed narrator character, plus a museum section on smuggling in Sussex.
The caves themselves are impressive — large chambers, carved pillars, and the acoustics and cold of underground.
Time: about an hour.
This attraction divides people, and the split is consistent enough to be worth reporting.
The caves are excellent. Nobody disputes that.
The price is the sticking point. For a family, the ticket is a substantial outlay for an hour’s walk-through, and a number of long-standing visitors — including people who have been coming since childhood — say it has moved beyond what the experience delivers. Some of the effects have been in place a long time and occasionally do not all work.
Set expectations accordingly: it is a good cave system with a serviceable presentation, not a major visitor attraction. On a wet afternoon with children who like the dark, it does the job well.
Admission charged. Check for combined or family tickets.
Time: about an hour.
Location: St Clement’s Caves, on the West Hill, five minutes’ walk from Hastings Castle.
Getting up: the West Hill Lift funicular from George Street in the Old Town, or a steep climb. There is limited parking on the hill.
Access: the caves have uneven floors, slopes and some low headroom.
Temperature: cool and constant underground — take a layer, whatever the weather outside.
Weather: entirely indoors, and consequently busy on wet days.
Hastings Castle is on the same hill, five minutes away, and the two are usually combined.
The West Hill clifftop is open, free and has the town’s best views.
The Old Town — George Street and All Saints Street — is below, and is the best part of Hastings.
Yes — a genuine sandstone cave system of about four acres, partly natural and largely hand-cut, used as a show cave since the 1820s.
The tradition is old and the location plausible, but the documentary evidence is thinner than the presentation implies. Sussex smuggling itself is very real history.
About an hour.
Opinions divide. The caves are impressive; a number of visitors find the ticket expensive for an hour’s walk-through, particularly for a family.
The West Hill Lift funicular from George Street, or a steep walk. Limited parking on the hill.