This is a small container containing only a logbook (bring your own pen). It is located at Devil’s Point and has fantastic views across Plymouth Sound. Please take care for muggles, as this area can get very busy.
About Charles Darwin: (1809-1882)
Charles Darwin is a noted writer who spent five years travelling the globe collecting data that would later be published in the form of a ground-breaking book: ‘The Origin of the Species’. Little known is that Darwin spent a couple of months in Plymouth before setting off on his voyage
In his journal to family and friends he noted how he chose to spend his days: walking in and around Plymouth and discussing matters with local botanists. He waited a couple of months for the ship to be fitted and for favourable winds, spending Christmas day in the city. At the very same time the ship’s crew were busy getting drunk, and were so hung-over that they could not travel on the 26th!
Close by to this geocache is a plaque in commemoration to Darwin’s visit to Plymouth. It states:
'At daybreak on 27-12-1831 HM Survey ship Beagle, commanded by Captain H.Fitzroy, departed its anchorage in Barn Pool, opposite this point. Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’ resulted directly from experiences gained during this voyage to South America.’
However, the plaque has little say about Darwin’s real feelings of his stay in Plymouth. He described the two months he spent in Plymouth as ‘the most miserable which I ever spent’. Such was the experience, that on returning to English shores five years later in 1836 he spoke of the city as ‘that horrid Plymouth’!
Cache placed with kind permission by Plymouth City Council