St Piran'S Oratory

PERRANZABULOE PERRANPORTH SW 75 NE 2/84 St Piran's Oratory 30.5.67 GV II

Early Christian church or oratory. Pre-Conquest, possibly C6 or C7. In the C20 the surviving structure was surrounded by a concrete vault; this is now covered in sand so that inspection is not possible. "-- this building from its structural peculiarities has been considered by competant authorities to date from the 6th or 7th century, and may have been erected over the tomb of St Piran, a headless skeleton, conjectured to be that of the saint, having been buried beneath the altar when the oratory was cleared of sand in 1835; its external dimensions were found to be, length 29 feet, breadth 16 1/2 feet, height of gables 19 feet; the masonry was of the rudest kind, without any mortar; the entrance door is at the south side, with a semi-circular arch ornamented with a cat's head carved on the key-stone and a human head on each side at the spring of the arch ---". Source: Extracted from description in Kelly's Directory.

Listing NGR: SW7685856398