Sancreed

Sancreed Church

Towns and Villages in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

Sancreed is a village and parish on the Land's End peninsula with a history stretching back centuries to the times of the Celtic Saints and into the mists of prehistory.

The granite parish church is dedicated to St Credan and is mostly of the 15th century. There are a large number of Celtic crosses in the churchyard, many of which used to act as wayside markers to the church and which have now been removed from their original sites to the churchyard. A Norman church would have stood here and prior to that it is likely that the site was an ancient Celtic shrine.

The name of the village and parish derives from Saint Credan.

There are two holy wells in Sancreed parish. The Holy Well of Sancreed is a walk of a few hundred yards from the churchtown in an enclosed area beyond Glebe Farm. The well and its ruined chapel remain in a beautiful atmospheric setting.

The second holy well is at Brane near the Carn Euny courtyard house settlement. The well is known as Chapel Euny well or the Holy Well of St Euny.

There are at least eight ancient Cornish stone crosses in Sancreed including five in and around the churchyard and those at Trenuggo Hill, Brane and Drift. Several of these are wheel-headed wayside crosses in addition to wheel-headed churchyard crosses. The crosses often serve too, to mark the boundary between parishes as in this case does the Brane Cross.

There are a large number of archaeological sites within the parish including a menhir (standing stone) called the Blind Fiddler which dates from the Bronze Age (Location: Map Reference SW 425282 beside the A30 near Catchall); Carn Euny courtyard houses which date from the Iron Age together with the fogou which is exceptional (Location: Map Reference SW 403288); a long barrow and Scillonian chamber tomb at Brane from the Neolithic period, some 5500 years ago (Location: Map Reference SW 401282 in a field near Brane Farm); and the Caer Bran hill fort dating from the Iron Age (Location: Map Reference SW 408290)

Location:
IntoCornwall Area Map Land's End Peninsula

Road directions to Sancreed

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