Chapel Carn Brea is an elevated Hercynian granite outcrop, owned by the National Trust at the southern edge of the civil parish of St Just, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hill is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of St Just and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) east of Sennen Cove, and just to the north of the A30 London to Land's End road which runs through the village of Crows-an-Wra. It should not be confused with Carn Brea, the hill overlooking the Camborne–Redruth area.
Chapel Carn Brea is often described as the first hill in Cornwall (from a westerly perspective) and rises 198 metres (650 ft) above sea level. The hill is an important historical site showing evidence of late neolithic and early Bronze Age activity, as well as the remains of the thirteenth century chapel from which it is named. The chapel which was pulled down in 1816 was said to be the home of holy men or monks. A manuscript from 1396 kept at the County Records Office, Truro records the ′beaconage′ received from fishermen for the burning an ′ecclesiastical light′, normally a brazier or fire basket. This is the earliest record of a navigational light in Cornwall. The Old Cornwall Society continues to light a beacon fire for the summer solstice on 23 June each year.
During the second world war the summit housed a Royal Air Force radar, a plaque, near the car park is dedicated to those that served there.
Famous quotes containing the word chapel:
“I never went near the Wellesley College chapel in my four years there, but I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity that school stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word.... How marvelous it would have been to go to a women’s college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)