St Fimbarrus

The story goes that St Wyllow, a Christian hermit, was living nearby in 596, legend has it that he was killed beheaded but that he brought the head here, thus deciding where the church should be built.

A hermit’s hut, chapel or church has stood on this site for at least 1500 years, and St Sampson’s lies on the ancient Saints Way along which many of the Celtic Saints came from Padstow to Fowey, thus avoiding a perilous sea route around Land’s End.

St Winnow, sitting on an ancient riverside Celtic site on the upper reaches of the River Fowey, is renowned as a place of peace, pilgrimage and spiritual refreshment.