It is situated west of Goss Moor and north of Fraddon, approximately 10 mi (16 km) west-southwest of Bodmin.

The Indian Queen Inn stood beside the road leading from Goss Moor to Fraddon, just below the top of the hill.

An inscription on the porch told the story of a Portuguese princess who landed at Falmouth in packet days, and slept one night at this inn on her way to London.

It bears the inscription "THE INDIAN QUEEN LICENSED BREWER AND RETAILER OF BEER, CYDER, WINE, AND TOBACCO.

With the advent of the UK's growing tourism industry in post-war Britain, Indian Queens became synonymous as a notorious traffic bottleneck during the summer holiday season because the A30 trunk road ran directly through the village.

With narrow roads, urban speed limits and a junction to the popular Cornish resort of Newquay, motorists could expect mile-long queues in both directions at peak times.

On his 2001 CD The Convincer, Nick Lowe wrote and sang a song called "Indian Queens", about a drifter who yearns to return there after a lifetime of travelling.