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" A good traveller has no fixed plans,

and is not intent on arriving "

Lao Tzu

Saint Nectan’s Glen

November 12th, 2009

You might be interested in this project: from The Friends of St.Nectan’s glen site: Saint Nectan’s Glen is an area of woodland in Trethevy near Tintagel, north Cornwall stretching for around one mile along both banks of the Trevillet River. The Glen’s most prominent feature is Saint Nectan’s Kieve, a spectacular sixty foot waterfall. It is spectacular and we believe it should be preserved for future generations in it’s pristine state and as it is for sale, we’re concerned about the future of this sacred site, so we have set out to buy to keep it as a sacred place of pilgrimage for all to enjoy.


This is a special interest group set up for the establishment of a group of trustees, friends and benefactors to collectively buy the sacred site near Tintagel, Cornwell, which was the place where King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table went to be anointed by the monks there before setting out on their Grail journey.

These days it’s still a site for modern pilgrims and spiritual seekers alike who are drawn to the Arthurian sacred sites and to the magnificence of Cornish coast and temperate rainforest. St Nectan’s Glen has been for sale for about three years. Here’s an advertisement for the property:

http://www.tintagelweb.co.uk/For%20Sale.htm

We are in the process of setting up a collective of investors who will buy into St Nectan’s Glen as trustees and we are also be registering it as a non-profit charity organization so that it will be a place of spiritual pilgrimage rather than a profit-making commercial operation, to preserve it’s spiritual value and not to taint it with too much commercialism.

5 Responses to “Saint Nectan’s Glen”

  1. It’s such a wonderful place – I really hope it can be protected for the future in the most sensitive way possible. We discovered it by accident when we were staying in a little cottage for Winter Solstice a few years back, up on the hills at Halgabron over looking the glen. I will never forget seeing it and Rocky Valley for the first time – they are such magical and beautiful places -they both had such an impact on me. I have gone back many times since and feel very connected to this part of the North Cornish Coast.

    Later, we stayed at Halgabron Mill, in the heart of the glen itself, three weeks after the Boscastle floods. The glen had been hit very badly too. The guy who owned the house we were staying in, told us of the nine foot wall of water – full of uprooted trees and slate -powering through the valley. His once beautiful garden looked like the surface of the moon, completely covered in a thick layer of enormous pieces of slate. We spoke to the couple that owned the Kieve and they were really struggling financially, the flood adding to their difficulties. It’s such a shame that they have felt compelled to sell because they seemed very open to keeping the glen a place of pilgrimage for everyone.

    I feel a particular affection for the place because it was where my OBOD journey started. The first winter visit, I had an encounter at dawn with a little wren feeding on a dry stone wall on the slopes of the valley. I could here the waters below but had no idea at that point what they were. It was one of those crossroads moments that ultimately lead to me signing up for the Bardic course. The following solstice I was back there, doing my Bardic Initiation, in a little cottage that had once been a granary (appropriately!), with the wind and rain howling outside!

    There is nothing quite like this part of Cornwall in the winter. You have got me yearning to return.

  2. Two years ago I put into Jean And Barry’s minds that I wanted to set up a trust to do exactly what you are doing, congratulations.

    Obviously I would like to be a part of this and would be very grateful to see how far this has progressed and financial details and maybe meet and discuss?

    Have been involved with its preservation since 1972.
    Thankyou, Well done !
    Lynda.

  3. Hi Lynda,

    This post is pasted in from other sources with links to them. So you need to follow the links and respond there. Sorry about the confusion!
    Best wishes,
    Philip

  5. The glen is the throat of the Great Bear, it is the centre of initiations and no matter who potentially buys this land the true Guardians of the Kieve will continue to help their initiates gain access.

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