St Nectan's Glen and Kieve, Trethevy, Tintagel

This enchanted waterfall is reached by a long path up a shady valley starting by a holy well. The site is blessed by nature and ritual alike and is now on the route of the King Arthur Way

Highlights

• Enchanted Celtic waterfall
• Holy well of St Piran

St Nectan’s Glen is wreathed in Celtic legend like the mist from its waterfall. Insubstantial but persistent, the stories tell of an oak casket buried beneath the flow, full of treasure and the relics of St Nectan himself. In reality, the waterfall tumbles onto hard bedrock. I briefly bathed in the rather shallow pool at the end of the day, when I had the glen to myself, feeling like a Celtic pioneer. I later discovered that the pool features in the Wild Swimming guidebook, with a note that the glen’s owners are happy for people to bathe so long as it is done with ‘sincerity and respect’; the site has changed hands since then. Only the lower pool can be entered. It has been used as a Christian immersion pool in the past, for blessing crusaders before they departed to the Holy Land according to one online guide. It now attracts a remarkably broad devotion, with rag clouties, piles of stones, offerings of money, candles, photographs of loved ones and twig crosses balancing on every available ledge in the surrounding canyon.

The waterfall plunges first into an upper pool, a cauldron of foaming water that then gushes through the hole in its side. It is this upper pool that gives the waterfall its spectacular appearance, and its name St Nectan’s ‘Kieve’. A kieve means ‘basin’ in Cornish. It is a naturally formed feature, the force of the water scouring out the bowl before eventually punching through the rock wall to form a second waterfall. From the top of the falls to the lowest pool is 18m.

The glen is in private ownership, but open to visitors during the summer. Tickets are sold from a quaint half-timbered house above the falls, which has a small cafe. This little house is built on foundations of stone a metre thick, perhaps the base of a medieval chapel dedicated to the saint. A small shrine has been set up on the ground floor, said to be on the site of St Nectan’s cell. It has a rock ledge at one end, a natural altar, and candles are available.

A 12th-century Life of St Nectan says he lived for many years as a hermit in a beautiful and remote valley, which certainly fits the current site. There is no reference to a waterfall however, just a holy well. St Nectan’s father was King Brychan, father of 24 children including many of Cornwall’s most famous early saints. He met his family on just one day a year, but otherwise eked out a solitary existence by his holy source of water. One day he challenged two thieves who stole his cows, and was decapitated as he attempted to explain the Christian faith. He carried his head back to his hermitage and then died. Other traditions assert that his sisters temporarily diverted the River Trevillet so he could be buried in an oak chest at the bottom of the waterfall, a detail with distinctly druidic overtones. He was an important saint in later medieval Cornwall, and there is a substantial church to his name at Stoke, near Hartland in Devon. Stoke is also claimed as the site of his hermitage, and it does have a holy well. Other tales talk of a silver bell that the saint cast into the glen’s waters to save it from the hands of unbelievers. It is said to augur ill if its muffled sound echoes mysteriously from the foaming depths.

Whenever I mentioned to Cornish people I was writing a book on holy places, St Nectan’s Glen always came up in their recommendations. It is certainly the holiest waterfall in Britain.

St Piran’s Well is a rather sedate affair compared to its magical counterpart up the valley. It is beside the road in the middle of Trethevy Village, on the route to St Nectan’s Glen. Water trickles out of the stone wellhouse in a steady stream. The saint is more closely associated with west Cornwall, particularly Perranporth. The holy well is one of several places that bear his name, and is a stopping point for pilgrims on their journey to the waterfall. There is a chapel dedicated to the saint opposite this well, on the corner of the lane leading to the waterfall. The chapel was restored in 1942 and is still used for occasional services.

Directions

The Hermitage, St Nectan’s Glen, Trethevy, Tintagel PL34 0BE

www.st-nectansglen.co.uk

W3W: tomato.motoring.guarding

GPS: 50.6648N 4.7160W waterfall

W3W: shirts.typed.pots

GPS: 50.6706N 4.7232W well

Trethevy is a tiny village just under a mile east of Bossiney/Tintagel on the B3263 to Boscastle. The postcode PL34 0BE will take you to the start of the footpath by St Piran’s Well. Be prepared for a long and slippery walk up the river valley to the waterfall. You need to park in Trethevy itself. There is a small car park on the coastal side of the road, signposted for visitors to the waterfall. From the car park, walk into the middle of the village, 50m along the road to the east. There is a lane leading uphill, and St Piran’s Well is just under a kilometre, making th total walk nearly a mile uphill. The waterfall opening times are from Apr–Oct 9:30am–5pm, rest of year 10am–4pm, last entry 30 minutes before closing. Tickets are £5.95 adults, £4.70 children over 5.