St Piran's Oratory, stone cross, Perranporth / Mount

St Piran’s Day on 5 March sees hundreds walk in procession to this ancient oratory, once lost in the sands, which is also a stopping point on the Cornish Celtic Way

Highlights

• Buried oratory and former shrine of St Piran
• Celtic cross
• Abandoned church

The ‘lost oratory’ of St Piran is no longer lost, having been uncovered from the shifting sand dunes in 2014 and preserved from future burial behind a concrete retaining wall. This is good news because it might contain the saint’s grave.

It is only pilgrims who get lost around here, trying to find the site in the undulating dunes. With decent directions, the oratory and a Celtic cross 350m away are fairly easy to locate, behind Penhale Sands beach. People still come here to pay their respects at St Piran’s former shrine, which might be the oldest chapel in Britain.

Piran is the most celebrated of Cornwall’s saints, and possibly the first, dying around 480. Cornwall’s emblem, a white cross on a black background, is St Piran’s Flag. The nearby town of Perranporth is also named after the saint: St Piran’s Port. But it is among these sand dunes a mile to the east of town where his legacy is best preserved.

The Celtic stone cross is the most prominent survivor from the medieval community, and the one to aim for first. It might be the oldest stone cross in Cornwall, quite an achievement in a region so full of early Christian artefacts. On the other hand it might be as late as the 11th century according to the noticeboard alongside – though it looks rather primitive.

Three holes have been pierced through its round head, but the fourth has been left as an indentation. Perhaps it was never finished, or perhaps the sculptor liked its Trinitarian symbolism. Whatever its age, it is the oldest object you can see in this area, the closest visible link to St Piran.

Alongside the cross are the ruins of an abandoned church built in the 12th century. This is the second church to be built in the area, a replacement for the lost oratory. It too succumbed to the shifting dunes and was abandoned in the 19th century, along with its village called Perranzabuloe. Excavations in 2005 uncovered its foundations, which are still visible today.

The oratory itself is a short walk towards the sea from here. When it was excavated in the 19th century, three skeletons were discovered, which some believe to be saintly relics. The Way and the Light suggests they might be St Piran, his mother, and St Ia, of St Ives fame.

Various attempts to keep the ruins open have been made in the past century, including the construction of a concrete sarcophagus over the entire building in 1910. Vandalism, flooding and sand continued to wreak havoc, and in 1980 the oratory was reburied for the next 34 years until finally seeing the light again in 2014.

St Piran worked and perhaps died here in the 5th or 6th century. His oratory was the centre of a pioneering Christian community. A holy spring alongside was used to baptise converts, but it remains lost in the sands, although the uncovered chapel does flood at times. The retaining wall restricts access into the oratory building itself, with a gate that is usually locked. Information panels have been put up alongside to help interpret the history of this elusive stone building, whose long game of hide and seek seems finally over.

Piran is remembered in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany – one of the first Celtic saints to follow this well-travelled itinerary. His relics ended up at Perranporth however. In the late 13th century his skull was the centre of a popular shrine here, along with his crozier and a small copper bell. Other places claimed some of his relics too, including Exeter Cathedral.

According to later tradition, St Piran started Cornwall’s mining tradition. One day while looking at his fire, he noticed streaks of silvery metal oozing out of the stones around it. His flag is sometimes said to represent silver metal on a surface of black ore. He is said to have arrived at Perranporth from Ireland floating on a millstone that became miraculously buoyant.

St Piran’s Day is 5 March, which is akin to a public holiday in Cornwall. In Perranporth thousands of people attend a pilgrimage march over the dunes to the site of the oratory and the Celtic cross. 

Directions

Path starts 200m west of: Mount Farm Bungalow, Mount, Rose TR4 9PN

www.stpiran.org/sites/st-pirans-oratory

W3W: kilowatt.spend.galaxy

GPS: 50.3651N 5.1390W oratory

W3W: prongs.mend.post

GPS: 50.3657N 5.1339W cross

The dunes are popular with local dog walkers should you get lost, but these directions are detailed. Drive north-east out of Perranporth on St Piran’s Road (the B3285). This is signposted ‘Newquay 8½ miles’ at the last roundabout. Exactly 1 mile after the roundabout the road bends sharp right, at which point continue straight ahead towards Trebellan and Mount. Just under half a mile along here a road joins from the right, with space to park on the left. Leave your car here and go through the wooden gate opposite the junction, into National Trust land.

The information panel by the gate shows a path going straight ahead towards the oratory. In reality the path is more winding as it weaves through the dunes. Follow the track with white concrete markers alongside. After 5–10 minutes a modern wooden cross was visible when I visited, ahead and to the left.

Keep walking straight along the path, and start to scan the skyline on your right for the Celtic cross, which looks like the silhouette of a person. It becomes more obvious the further along the path you walk. The cross is next to the ruined 12th-century church.

When you have finished here, the uncovered oratory is 350m away. From the Celtic cross walk due west towards the sea, which is out of sight behind a bank of dunes. After about 300m you go over a short wooden bridge, marooned without water when I visited. After this you can see the oratory ahead of you. It was beside the MOD’s boundary fence when I visited, but this land was being sold, so the fence might have been removed.