Picklecombe Seat

Picklecombe Seat is a garden feature designed as an alcove temple, built in the late 18th century and incorporating earlier elements. It is constructed from slatestone and granite rubble, featuring a granite arch and limestone dressings. The structure has a rectangular plan and is approached by five granite steps leading to an open front in the Gothick style. The central tall elliptical arch is flanked by aedicules, each supported by a pair of engaged shafts. Above the shafts, there is a pediment adorned with trefoils and a cusped tympanum. The sides and rear are made of rubble. Inside, the floor is cobbled, and the ceiling features a ridged granite vault with a wide convex-moulded rib at the rear. The rear wall includes an imitation piscina or niche, with engaged shafts on either side, a trefoil head topped with a crocketted gable moulding in limestone, a quatrefoil sink within the niche, and a rectangular recess at the back. Rev. Shaw, in his "Early Tours of Devon and Cornwall" from 1788, described it as "Winding beautifully round we came next to a gothic alcove built from the materials of an old chapel the inside of which gives a picturesque view of nothing but the sea."