Bodmin

Market town in Cornwall, southwest England, 48 km/30 mi northwest of Plymouth; population (2001) 12,800. It is the commercial centre of a farming area. Other activites include some light industry and the provision of tourist services. Bodmin Moor, to the northeast, is a granite upland culminating in Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall at 419 m/1,375 ft.

History
A monastery was established here in the 6th century by St Petroc, a Welsh missionary. Situated midway between the north and south coasts of Cornwall, Bodmin became an important trading town in medieval times. It was the capital of Cornwall from 1835 until 1989 when it was replaced by Truro. The scholar and writer Arthur Quiller-Couch was born here in 1863.