St Buryan, Cornwall

Description
Buryan, St, a parish in Cornwall. The parish lies 4 1/2miles E by N of Lands-End, and 4 1/2 SW of Penzance railway station, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) Acreage, 6975; population, 1288. The surface consists largely of black granite hills. A small town of ancient note was here, but is now represented by only a few cottages. An oratory was founded at it at an early period by St Buriena, a holy woman from Ireland. A secular college was founded here in 909 by Athelstane, changed afterwards into an exempt deanery, and destroyed in the time of the Commonwealth by Shrubshall, governor of Pendennis Castle. A number of Druidical remains, including the Merry Maidens, the Boscawen-Un, and the Rosmodrevy circles, occur among the hills. A cattle fair is held on the first Tuesday in March. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter, and till 1864 was united with Levan and Sennen; value, £300. Patron, H.R.H. The Duke of Cornwall. The church stands on a wild open eminence 415 feet high, has a lofty tower commanding a view to the Scilly Islands, is an ancient edifice greatly altered by modern renovations, and contains a fine carved screen and a curious coffin-shaped monument with a Norman-French inscription. An ancient chapel called the Sanctuary stands about a mile to the SE. Attorney-General Noy, of the time of Charles I., was a native.