About the Parish

Sancreed is a rural civil parish in West Penwith, at the far western tip of Cornwall, about three miles west of Penzance. Made up of scattered farms and hamlets, including Sancreed Churchtown, Newbridge, Drift, Grumbla and Brane, it is the only parish in Penwith without a coastline, and remains a quiet patchwork of farmland, moorland and ancient lanes.

For its size, the parish is extraordinarily rich in ancient history. Standing stones, hillforts and burial mounds are part of the everyday landscape here, and they draw visitors from across the world. The tallest of the standing stones is the Blind Fiddler, rising three and a half metres beside the A30 above Catchall, while a little to the west of Drift stand the pair known as The Sisters, and above Tregerest the Boswens Menhir sits at the heart of a long burial barrow. Crowning the parish is Sancreed Beacon, a prehistoric hilltop cared for by the Cornwall Heritage Trust, where a Bronze Age burial chamber survives on the summit and the outlines of ancient round houses and their small fields can still be traced on its north western slope. Its heathland is grazed the year round by Dartmoor ponies, and the views reach clear across the peninsula to Mount’s Bay.

The parish’s best known treasure is Carn Euny, one of the finest ancient villages in the South West and one of the most visited historic sites in the parish. Excavated in the 1960s, it was lived in for some thousand years before being abandoned around 400 AD, and at its centre lies a remarkable fogou, an underground passage roofed with massive stone slabs, now in the care of English Heritage. Nearby rise the ramparts of Caer Bran, one of the best Iron Age hillforts in Cornwall. At Newbridge a handsome Grade II listed granite bridge, rebuilt in 1843 over a far older crossing, still carries the road across the stream, and at the heart of the parish stands the medieval church of St Creden, known for its fine Celtic wheel headed crosses, with an ancient holy well a short walk to the west.

Sancreed is as alive with wildlife as it is with history. Drift Reservoir, on the parish’s edge, is one of the best places for birdwatching in West Penwith, with a hide looking out over the water where wildfowl, waders and the occasional rare visitor blown in from far away can be watched through the seasons. The churchyard of St Creden shelters roosting bats that flit out at dusk, the heath and hedgerows are bright with gorse, heather and wildflowers, and the quiet lanes and moorland are home to buzzards, owls and a wealth of smaller creatures. For walkers, birdwatchers and nature lovers, there is something to discover here in every season.