Pub history

The Admiral Collingwood

Until its very recent closure, the Collingwood Hotel had welcomed visitors to north Devon’s Ilfracombe for over 130 years. The imposing five-storey building was named after Admiral, Lord Collingwood, Nelson’s second-in-command at Trafalgar (who fought just off the Spanish coast in 1805). Cuthbert Collingwood fired the first shot in the battle (one of British naval history’s most famous and crucial) and took over command of the British fleet after the fatal wounding of his friend Horatio Nelson.