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 (film) test was sub par, but Laughton could not forget her eyes). After filming finished, Laughton brought her to Hollywood to play Esmeralda opposite his Quasimodo in 1939 version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", where she became an international star. In March 1939, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood to begin his contract with David O. Selznick. Thus "Jamaica Inn " was his last British picture, as well as one of his most successful. Critics disparaged the film, largely because of the lack of atmosphere and tension which was present in the book, with its light-hearted, often camp banter, and portly landlord,