Holidays in Altarnun, Bodmin Moor – Packhorse Bridge, St Nonna’s & Five Lanes

HOLIDAYS IN ALTARNUN

Altarnun – pronounced “altar-nun” – nestles in the sheltered valley of Penpont Water, a tributary of the River Inny, on the north-eastern edge of Bodmin Moor. With its granite cottages, ancient packhorse bridge and magnificent church, it can truly be described as one of the prettiest villages in Cornwall.

The village takes its name from St Nonna, the mother of St David of Wales, and its great church of St Nonna, known as the “Cathedral of the Moor”, rises above the stream with its 109-foot tower. Across the bridges, the main street climbs past cottages, the old Methodist chapel and the site of the village mill.

Altarnun is the heart of the largest parish in Cornwall, which stretches across a great swathe of Bodmin Moor and includes the village of Five Lanes, the hamlet of Trewint, with its links to John Wesley, and Bolventor, home of the famous Jamaica Inn. Although Altarnun, Five Lanes and Trewint are now almost linked, each still keeps its own character.

The village is easily reached, lying just off the A30 dual carriageway about 7 miles west of Launceston and 14 miles east of Bodmin. From the north coast and the A39, an easy approach is by the lane across Davidstow, and from the south coast via Liskeard, St Cleer and the moorland road to Bolventor.

It makes a peaceful base for exploring Bodmin Moor, with walks from the village onto the open moor and along the wooded valleys of the Inny and Penpont Water. Launceston, Camelford and Bodmin are close by, and the beaches of the north coast at Crackington Haven, Boscastle and Bude are within easy reach.

This guide covers everything you need for a holiday in Altarnun: the packhorse bridge, St Nonna’s Church, the village and its history, Five Lanes and Trewint, Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Moor, things to do, walks, places nearby and local events, plus practical information on parking, buses, shops and health services.

THE PACKHORSE BRIDGE

The heart of Altarnun is its old packhorse bridge over Penpont Water. Dating from the 15th century, the narrow granite bridge was built for packhorses carrying goods to and from the moorland farms, and it still leads from the village street across the stream to the church.

The view across the bridge is one of the best-known scenes on Bodmin Moor. Beyond the stream stand Cosy Cottage and Rosebridge Cottage, both Grade II listed and of late 17th-century origin, and behind them the churchyard gates, gate piers and wall, with an old mounting block that probably dates from the mid 19th century.

Just behind the churchyard gates stands a medieval wayside cross, a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Its round “wheel” head was set on a modern granite shaft in 1905. Tradition says the cross dates from the 6th century, when St Nonna is said to have come here from Wales, but the historian V.E. Nash-Williams dated it to the 10th or 11th century.

The stream itself, bordered by a small village green, is a lovely spot to sit and watch the water tumbling over the stones. Please take care on the bridge – it is very narrow and is still used by cars and farm vehicles.

ST NONNA’S CHURCH – THE CATHEDRAL OF THE MOOR

The Normans built a church here in the 12th century, but the Church of St Nonna as it stands today was largely rebuilt in the late 15th century, partly of moorstone – granite gathered from the surface of the moor. Its tower, possibly begun in the 14th century, is 109 feet (33 metres) high, though its height is less noticeable against the backdrop of hill and trees.

Known as the “Cathedral of the Moor”, St Nonna’s is one of the largest churches on Bodmin Moor and is listed Grade I. Inside, the tall granite arcades open into a light, spacious interior. The Norman font, carved with faces at its corners, is one of the few surviving parts of the 12th-century church, and the carved rood screen is one of the finest in Cornwall.

The church’s greatest treasure is its set of 79 carved bench ends, made by Robert Daye between about 1510 and 1530. They show a wonderful array of subjects – saints and symbols of the Passion, a Cornish piper and a fiddler, a jester, sheep grazing on the moor and the carver’s own name – and are among the finest in the West Country.

The church was restored in 1867 by Edmund Sedding and has a peal of eight bells. Its links with St Nonna go back centuries: she is said to have left her native Wales and settled here, and her holy well lies in a field a short walk from the church.

Daphne du Maurier knew the church well, and in her novel Jamaica Inn the mysterious Francis Davey is the vicar of Altarnun. The Georgian-style Old Rectory, built in 1842 just up the lane from the church, is said to have inspired his home in the novel. It was sold by the church in 1975 and is now a private house.

THE VILLAGE

Across the packhorse bridge lies the picturesque main village, with its granite cottages climbing the hill from the stream. To the left of the church, facing the green by Penpont Water, is a long white cottage recorded in the early 19th century as the parish “Poor Houses”; it was sold in 1871 and is now a private home. The Church Hall nearby was once the village school.

Altarnun’s village shop and post office are now in the Village Hall, the hub of community life. The village has a primary school, a tea room and a strong community spirit, and it is twinned with Guéltas in Brittany.

Along the main street stands the old Methodist chapel, built at the end of the 18th century, with granite steps leading up to its door. Over the doorway is a carved head of John Wesley, made by the local sculptor Neville Northey Burnard when he was just sixteen. Burnard, born in Altarnun in 1818, went on to national fame as a sculptor, but his later life was tragic, and he died in poverty in 1878. More of his early work can be seen on gravestones in the churchyard.

Opposite the old Mill House once stood the village corn mill, four storeys high and fed by a leat from Penpont Water. It stopped working in the early 1930s and was later demolished to widen the road – but the stream, the cottages and the bridge still give Altarnun the timeless feel of an old moorland village.

Walk a little way out of the village in any direction and you are quickly among fields, hedges and moorland. Altarnun sits right on the boundary between the farmed valleys and the open moor, and from the higher lanes there are wide views across Bodmin Moor.

HISTORY OF ALTARNUN

People have lived on this part of Bodmin Moor for thousands of years, and the moorland around Altarnun is scattered with Bronze Age hut circles, cairns and field systems. In the early Christian period the valley became a holy place, linked by tradition with St Nonna, whose church, cross and holy well still form the heart of the village.

The settlement in the valley was long known as Penpont, a name that survives in Penpont Water. A Norman church stood here by the 12th century, and the church was rebuilt in its present form in the late 15th century.

St Nonna’s holy well, a short walk from the church, was once famous for a strange cure. The Elizabethan historian Richard Carew described how people suffering from madness were “bowssened” – tipped backwards into the pool and tossed about in the water until they weakened – and then taken to the church for prayers. The well became overgrown in the 19th century and was cleared in the 1930s.

The parish of Altarnun is the largest in Cornwall, covering more than 15,000 acres, much of it open moorland. In the 18th century the first turnpike road across Bodmin Moor passed through Five Lanes, which became a coaching stop, and the coaching inn at Bolventor – Jamaica Inn – was built beside the same road. Cornish wrestling tournaments were held at Five Lanes in the 1800s.

Today the A30 dual carriageway sweeps past the village, but Altarnun itself is a quiet, close-knit community of around 1,100 people, its old cottages, church and bridge little changed in centuries.

FIVE LANES & TREWINT

A short walk up the old sunken lane from Altarnun lies Five Lanes, now bypassed by the A30. Its largest building is the King’s Head, an old coaching inn dating from 1623, which became a staging post when the first turnpike road across Bodmin Moor was built in the 18th century. It has had several names over the years, and the ghost of a former landlady, Peggy Bray, is said to haunt the upstairs passage. Today it is a traditional village pub with food, a garden and rooms.

On the other side of Altarnun, at Treween, the Rising Sun Inn is an 18th-century moorland inn about a mile from the village, serving food at lunchtime and in the evening, with a small campsite alongside.

Five Lanes was once the focal point for the outlying farms, with a livestock market, blacksmiths, a tailor and a cobbler. The market closed in the late 1980s, but many of the original granite cottages survive.

A quarter of a mile west of Five Lanes is the hamlet of Trewint. At the end of its narrow lane stands Wesley Cottage, the home of stonemason Digory Isbell and his wife Elizabeth. In 1743 two of John Wesley’s preachers called at the cottage and were made welcome, and in 1744 Wesley himself stayed there. Inspired by the story of the Shunammite woman in the Bible, Digory built two rooms onto his house for Wesley and his preachers.

As larger chapels were built, the rooms fell out of use and into ruin, but in 1950 the house and the Wesley rooms were restored and opened to the public. Wesley Cottage is now a small museum of Methodist history, and Wesley Day celebrations are held there every May.

JAMAICA INN & BODMIN MOOR

About four miles west of Altarnun, at Bolventor in the heart of Bodmin Moor, stands Jamaica Inn, the old coaching inn made world-famous by Daphne du Maurier’s novel of smugglers and wreckers. Today it has rooms, bars, a restaurant, a farm shop and a museum of smuggling.

Jamaica Inn was built in 1750 as a coaching inn on the turnpike road across the moor, giving travellers and their horses a welcome halt on one of the loneliest roads in Cornwall. Its slate-hung walls, cobbled courtyard and low-beamed bars still have the feel of an old moorland inn, and the outdoor seating looks out across the A30 to the open moor.

Inside, alongside the bars and restaurant, the gift shop is hung with Cornish flags and stocked with local produce, books and souvenirs, and the small museum tells the story of smuggling on the Cornish coast and of du Maurier’s life and work. It is a popular stop for travellers on the A30, and for many visitors the start of a day on the moor.

Daphne du Maurier stayed at Jamaica Inn in 1930, when she and a friend became lost on the moor while out riding in the mist. The experience, and the tales she heard of smugglers on the moor, inspired the novel, published in 1936, in which the young Mary Yellan comes to live at the inn and seeks help from the vicar of Altarnun.

Altarnun stands on the edge of the moor, and the open country of granite tors, heather and moorland streams begins just beyond the village. To the west rise Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, while to the south lie Dozmary Pool, the legendary home of the Lady of the Lake, and the wooded Fowey valley at Golitha Falls.

The moor is rich in prehistoric remains, from stone circles and standing stones to hut circles and burial cairns, and its wild landscape has inspired writers and artists for generations. Ponies, cattle and sheep graze freely, so drive slowly on the unfenced moorland roads.

THINGS TO DO IN ALTARNUN

Altarnun is a village to explore slowly. Cross the packhorse bridge, spend time in St Nonna’s Church admiring the bench ends, and wander up the village street – then head out onto the moor or along the quiet valleys.

Here are some of the best things to do in and around Altarnun:

1. Cross the packhorse bridge – the 15th-century bridge over Penpont Water.
2. Visit St Nonna’s Church – the Cathedral of the Moor, with its Norman font and 79 carved bench ends.
3. Find St Nonna’s Well – the holy well in the fields above the church.
4. See the Wesley head – carved by Neville Northey Burnard over the old chapel door.
5. Visit Wesley Cottage – where John Wesley stayed at Trewint.
6. Enjoy a meal at a moorland inn – the King’s Head at Five Lanes or the Rising Sun at Treween.
7. Visit Jamaica Inn – the famous coaching inn at Bolventor.
8. Walk on Bodmin Moor – to Brown Willy and Rough Tor, the highest tors in Cornwall.
9. Explore Launceston – the castle and walled town, about 7 miles east.
10. Head for the coast – the beaches of Crackington Haven, Boscastle and Bude.

WALKS AROUND ALTARNUN

The parish has nearly 17 kilometres of public footpaths, waymarked with yellow arrows and regularly cut, linking Altarnun, Five Lanes and Trewint with the farms and valleys around them. The parish council publishes a footpath map that can be downloaded from its website.

Popular routes follow Penpont Water and the valley of the River Inny through woods and meadows, or climb from the village onto the open moor, with wide views across Bodmin Moor towards Brown Willy and Rough Tor.

Bodmin Moor’s weather can change quickly, so take a map, water and waterproofs, wear good boots and let someone know your route if you are walking far from the roads. Please leave gates as you find them and keep dogs under close control – cattle can be aggressive towards dogs, especially when they have calves. Some paths are wet and muddy, so wear waterproof footwear.

AROUND ALTARNUN

• Launceston – the Norman castle, walled town and steam railway, about 7 miles east.
• Jamaica Inn, Bolventor – du Maurier’s famous coaching inn, about 4 miles west.
• Rough Tor & Brown Willy – the highest tors on Bodmin Moor, reached from Camelford.
• Camelford – the market town on the River Camel, on the north-west edge of the moor.
• Bodmin – the old county town, about 14 miles west.
• Crackington Haven and Boscastle – the nearest of the north coast’s coves and harbours.

LOCAL EVENTS

Altarnun is a quiet village, but its community calendar includes church and chapel festivals, events in the Village Hall and Church Hall, and the agricultural shows of the surrounding area.

• Wesley Day (May) – celebrations at Wesley Cottage, Trewint.
• Launceston Show (late July) – the agricultural show in nearby Launceston.
• Royal Cornwall Show (June) – three days at the Royal Cornwall Showground near Wadebridge.

Dates change from year to year, so check before you travel.