Saint Nectan's Glen
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Saint Nectan's Glen (, meaning ''deep wooded valley of Nathan/Nectan'') is an area of woodland in
Trethevy Trethevy () is a hamlet in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is midway between the villages of Tintagel and Boscastle in the civil parish of Tintagel. Trethevy has a number of historic buildings and is an early Christian site. The ha ...
near
Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena (, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle ...
, north
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
stretching for around one mile along both banks of the Trevillet River. The glen's most prominent feature is
St Nectan's Kieve Saint Nectan's Kieve (, meaning ''Nathan's tub'') in Saint Nectan's Glen, near Tintagel in Cornwall, Great Britain, is a plunge pool or basin fed by a waterfall on the Trevillet River. Geology The river is carved into Late Devonian slate and s ...
, a spectacular sixty foot waterfall through a hole in the rocks. The site attracts tourists who believe it to be "one of the UK's most spiritual sites," and tie or place ribbons, crystals, photographs, small piles of flat stones and other materials near the waterfall.


History and buildings

It is believed locally that, in the sixth century,
Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland i ...
had a hermitage above the waterfall and rang a silver bell to warn ships of the dangers of offshore rocks at the mouth of the Rocky Valley during storms. However, this is myth concocted by Victorian romanticists such as R. S. Hawker and the valley has no religious connections save the remains of a monastery and a small chapel in nearby
Trethevy Trethevy () is a hamlet in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is midway between the villages of Tintagel and Boscastle in the civil parish of Tintagel. Trethevy has a number of historic buildings and is an early Christian site. The ha ...
dedicated to
St Piran Piran or Pyran (; ), died c. 480,Patrons - The Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael and Holy Piran'' Oecumenical Patriarchate, Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Laity Moor, Nr Ponsanooth, Cornwall. TR3 7HR. Retrieved: 16 February 20 ...
. The site was known as Nathan's Cave in 1799, named after a local character, either Nathan Williams or Nathan Cock. There is a late nineteenth or early twentieth century half-timbered private residence known as The Hermitage, constructed on the remains of an eighteenth century summer house or folly. Further downstream are the brick remains of St Gerwyn, a house which was destroyed in a fire in the mid-twentieth century. The supposed connection with St Nectan is a Victorian invention and the current use of the site as a place for depositing "sacred offerings" is a more recent invention. The even more recent fashion for calling the waterfall Merlin's Well has no basis in any local tradition. June 17 is the feast day of St Nectan.


Flora and fauna

As a result of the glen's
flora and fauna An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been pro ...
it was designated a
Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
in 1985. The damp shade provided by the glen supports a rich
bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...
flora, including two rare liverworts ''Jubula hutchinsiae'' and ''Trichocolea tomentella'', and the mosses ''Fissidens curnovii'' and ''Fissidens osmundoides''.
Dippers Dippers are members of the genus ''Cinclus'' in the bird family Cinclidae, so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Taxonomy The genus ''Cinclus'' ...
('' Cinclus cinclus'') also nest in the rocks near Saint Nectan's Kieve.


Ownership and access

The site is privately owned but there is free public access to the glen. A charge is made to visit the waterfall. In 2011 the Friends of St Nectan's Glen attempted to raise enough money to buy the site of 14 acres from the owner Barry Litton. A guide price of £800,000 was set by the estate agents. The site and adjacent café were purchased in 2012 by Guy Mills, a business park owner who said that his intention was to maintain it as "a place of inward reflection and self-realisation for everyone to enjoy". "New owner vows to keep sacred site St Nectan's Glen open", ''Cornish Guardian'', 14 March 2012
Retrieved 27 July 2014 The café reportedly attracted 10,000 visitors a year, before its recent refurbishment under the new owners. "Welcome to St Nectans Glen"
Retrieved 27 July 2014


See also

*
Clootie well A clootie well is a holy well (or sacred Spring (hydrosphere), spring), almost always with a tree growing beside it, where small strips of cloth or ribbons are left as part of a healing ritual, usually by tying them to branches of the tree (cal ...
*
List of waterfalls This list of notable waterfalls of the world is sorted by continent, then country, then province, state or territory. A waterfall is included if it is at least tall and has an existing Wikipedia article, or it is considered historically sig ...
*
List of waterfalls in England The uplands of the north and west of England enjoy the wettest climate and are home to the majority of waterfalls in the country. In areas such as the Lake District which were formerly glaciated, they are commonly found at the lower ends of hang ...


References


External links

* * {{Authority control
Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland i ...
Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland i ...
Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland i ...
Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland i ...