St. Dennis

Dennis

Driving along the A30, past Goss Moor to the west of Bodmin, if you look south towards china clay country, you will see a hill topped by a tight circle of deciduous trees, a church tower protruding above them. This is St. Dennis church, oddly well north of the village of St. Dennis, one of the largest of the china clay villages. In July 2008 I had finished a walk from Goss Moor and decided to take a look at the church. A very rural route took me through Tregoss, Enniscsaven, Gothers and Carne to climb the hill to the church. The church itself is said to be of little interest, restored after a recent fire - and locked anyway. What is special about it is that it is said to stand within an iron age hill fort. It is a very strange site. The churchyard is surrounded by a massive stone wall, 10 feet high in places and up to 6 feet wide. Another wall creates a courtyard to its south. Inside the wall the land on the north and west sides is higher than the wall, yet the church is set down in a hollow. Trees completely surround it. Some suggest that the wall follows the course of the hill fort wall. If so, why is the land inside higher? And if it was a hill fort, why so small. Perhaps it was an outlier of Castle-an-Dinas, clearly visible 3 miles to the north. Rather entertainingly, as with St. Juliot church, you can approach the churchyard by a massive stile from the field to the west. When I visited in 2016, views from the site were panoramic.

St. Dennis revisited 2018

St. Dennis is signed from the A30 at Indian Queens

Trees and a massive stone wall surround the church.

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