Tywardreath (/ˈtaɪwərˌdrɛθ/; Cornish: Ti War Dreth, meaning "House on the Beach" (or Strand)) is a small hilltop village on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, about 3 miles (5 km) north west of Fowey.

Although this was a fictional tale of drug-induced time-travel, the history and geography of the area was carefully researched by du Maurier, who lived in a house called Kilmarth (Cornish: Kilmergh, meaning horses' ridge), 1 mile (2 km) to the south.

Tywardreath was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) when it was one of 28 manors held by Richard from Robert, Count of Mortain.

The house was poor but powerful in the area, controlling the port of Fowey and having lands scattered over Cornwall.

Being regarded as an alien priory subject to a French mother house, the Crown frequently took it into its 'protection', taking all its temporal income for itself, as the alien houses' loyalty to the English crown was suspect, and they were sending profits from their English lands to "enemies" abroad.

Nothing survives of the monastery today, except some carved stones in the parish church, next to where the priory stood.

A modern story (Methuen's 'Little Guide - Cornwall, July 2016) implausibly explains the lack of remains of the priory by saying the last prior shipped the stone back to France.

A corrody, no doubt the same one, was held in this Priory in 1509 by Hugh Denys of Osterley (died 1511), Groom of the King's Close Stool to Henry VII.

[8] Within the parish is the historic estate of Menabilly, long the seat of the Rashleigh family, in 1873 the largest landowners in Cornwall.

Outside the village on the road up to Castle Dore is Trenython Manor (Cornish: Tre'n Eythyn, meaning the gorse farm).

A local paper at the time reported: "Trenython, the seventh Railwaymen's convalescent home, was opened by Viscount Churchill, chairman of the GWR.

The two Egyptian Pillars standing sentinel inside the front door had originated from the Temple of Ephesus and are thousands of years old.