Brown Willy is said to be one of "the UK's best-loved high points". The hill features in an annual race held on New Year's Day that starts and finishes at Jamaica Inn, an old coaching inn made famous by Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name. The hill is regarded as a sacred mountain by members of the Aetherius Society, a UFO religion founded in 1954 by George King. They believe that Brown Willy was charged with "holy energy" on 23 November, which they celebrate each year as "Charging Day", and gather at the hill on that day each year
Jamaica Inn circular entrenchment of Cardinkam Bun, and the Knights Templar church ruins at Temple. Between the inn and Kilmarth, a house near Par, can be found hut circles, stone lines and parts of ancient stream works. Though an inn has stood on the main road (modern A30, before the bypass was built) through the hamlet since 1547, the current building dates from 1750. The inn was built in 1750 and extended in 1778 with a coach house, stables and a tack room assembled in an L-shaped fashion. It is often commonly thought that the inn takes its name from the smugglers