Sancreed Beacon

Sancreed Beacon

Sancreed Beacon is a granite hill, rising nearly two hundred meters above sea level, with several Bronze Age burial mounds on top and the remains of a Bronze Age hut on the western slope. The Beacon, which gives spectacular views of the Land's End peninsula and all the way over to the Lizard, was used to light warning fires during the Napoleonic wars and to warn of the approach of the Spanish Armada. Open mine workings and mine shafts provide evidence that the hill was also used for tin mining.

Sancreed Beacon sits in an area unusually rich in archaological remains. A circular walk of no more than five miles could take in Carn Euny Iron Age village, Brane chambered cairn, Caer Bran hill fort and Sancreed village, with several Celtic crosses and a holy well. Today, Sancreed Beacon is covered in gorse and bracken and provides a habitat for a variety of wildlife, including kestrels, buzzards, small mammals, lizards and adders.

Easily accessed from the A30 by following signs from Drift, Sancreed Beacon is free to visit. There is a small car park just west of Sancreed church.