THERE’S dodgy boozers, and there’s the Admiral Benbow in Penzance.

Swift Half’s Pub of the Week was once so wild that its clientele used secret tunnels beneath it to hide from the law… but that was 400 or so years ago, and it’s changed a bit since then.

Penzance was the epicentre of Cornish smuggling and whilst the west country was a long way from the continent and landings were difficult, it favoured fearless local family groups of smugglers who knew the enclaves and costal bays like the back of their hands.

Beneath the worn streets of Penzance lives an extensive labyrinth of smugglers’ tunnels stretching from the harbour to notable locations such as the Abbey Warehouse (a grade II listed granite storage), the Turks Head and Admiral Benbow pubs on Chapel Street, while extending to Causewayhead and Market Jew Street.

The Admiral Benbow is the oldest boozer in Penzance and has been serving up since the 17th-century.

It is rumoured Robert Louis Stevenson even visited the tavern when it was an illegal drinking den and his visit inspired parts of his famous novel Treasure Island – including an Inn of the same name.

Builders unearthed parts of the 200-year-old smuggling network that linked to the pub when they were renovating the Abbey Warehouse, discovering a series of escape hatches leading under the floor.

A pair of small square holes were found with access to two tunnels thought to lead under the roads to the Admiral Benbow.

Phil Bradby, of developers Mango Homes, told the Daily Mail that he thought the smugglers probably made the tunnels with the help of local tin miners.

“It was amazing. The building was full of debris and rubbish which we were moving out by the skip-load.

“Then we found these plates and lifted them up and there were the tunnels. Everyone knows about smuggling but the evidence is fantastic.

“A lot of people round here were tin miners who had the skills to build these types of tunnel.”

The Benbow Brandy Men were a notorious smuggling gang that were formed in the pub. They were famed for utilising the secret tunnels to bring in brandy, gin, and tobacco from the harbour, avoiding the tax costs and the vigilant excisemen.

Remarkably, within the tunnel, there exists a concealed peephole, allowing the smugglers to be discreetly alerted if tax collectors had entered the pub, keeping a watchful eye out for them.

The tunnels though are of no use to current pub-goers. The ex-landlord Alan Marsh added: “Smugglers today wouldn’t get far in the tunnel. It has been bricked up for years and I’m told parts may have collapsed when work was done on the street.

“People do love the old stories of the smugglers and we get a lot of interest from visitors. But they wouldn’t get very far in this tunnel.

The pub these days houses a fascinating collection of wreckage and maritime artefacts rescued from numerous shipwrecked vessels which foundered on the Cornish coast during the last 400 years.

Sadly, you may not be able to get a bottle of bootleg brandy though.