History and Heritage

An Ancient Track between Rame Church and the Chapel on Rame Head

In 2015, a new pilgrimage route, the Cornish Celtic Way, was established covering 125 miles from the Priory Church of St Germans to St Michael’s Mount. The route runs westward following the Saint’ Way to Polruan, then north east and along the north coast.  Towards the end it joins St Michael’s Way to the Mount. The start and finish are highly appropriate for these are the only two medieval monastery churches surviving in more or less their original form and both are associated with early pilgrimages.

The parish of Rame also has a church dedicated to St Germanus and a chapel of St Michael on Rame Head, reflecting in microcosm the same connection. It is tempting to suggest that the similarity is deliberate for both are later than the early Christian churches at St Germans and the Mount. Hals and Tonkin in 1838 noted that ‘the Ram Head itself exhibits the appearance of a grand mass of rocks gradually tapering into the sea, much resembling Cudden Point in Mount’s Bay’ (1838, 3: 375). At the other side of Whitsand Bay on Looe Island there are the remains of another chapel to St Michael. Professor Nicholas Orme, the country’s leading authority on early and Medieval Christianity, has pointed out that ‘the island chapel of Lammana (Looe Island but once called ‘St Michael’s Island’) and the inland rock chapel at Roche, look like attempts to imitate the Mount.’ (2010: 237).

As such it is possible that pilgrims from far afield might have stopped off at Rame and at Looe Island on their way to the far larger and spiritually more significant site in Mounts Bay, where believers were persuaded for many years that a visit and donation could be as highly beneficial in reducing penance by the same period as was true at the shrine in Compostella in Northern Spain. It is more probable, however, that most pilgrims to the two local chapels would have been local folk celebrating the saint’s annual festivals; the principal feast day on the 29th September (Michaelmas Day) and the occasion when an apparition of the saint is thought to have appeared amongst the faithful at Monte Gargano in Italy (8th May) and at Mont St Michel (16th October) (Orme, 2010: 237).

St Germanus Church at Rame (listed Grade 1) and the Chapel dedicated to St Michael on Rame Head (listed Grade II*) are approximately 1000m apart and are connected by an ancient track. They were built at similar times in the 13th century but both on the site of earlier buildings from Celtic times. For hundreds of years the two buildings were regarded by local citizens as part of the same spiritual space. The track can be clearly seen in all the early OS maps as a continuation of Ramehead Lane, not turning left towards the present cottages created from the old coastguard station but continuing across the field towards Ramehead Barn and then across the common to the chapel.

Professor Orme has confirmed the importance of the link between the church and the chapel:

"There would be local pilgrimage to a chapel like that at Rame - out-and-back-home-same-day pilgrimage, very likely on St Michael's main festivals in May, September, and October. Also on one of the three Rogation Days in May/June when Cornish congregations often went from the parish church to local chapels on each of the days and picnicked afterwards." 

The importance of the track itself is reflected by the fact that, although now ploughed up and the sign removed, it is still listed as a ‘Gold Path’ (617/9/2 and 617/9/1) by Cornwall Council and any obstruction or difficulty of access should receive immediate action to remedy it under Section 130A of the Highways Act 1980.

The spatial connection can be readily appreciated from the wonderful aerial image (courtesy of Steve Johnson). It shows Ramehead Lane leading from the church but rather than turning sharp left the ancient track continues across the field to the site of Ramehead Barn that is just visible in the top centre of the photograph and from there to the chapel.  The importance of the connectedness of listed buildings and their spatial context as far as planning is concerned can be found in Historic England (2017).

On the 12th August 2012, BBC news reported ‘Cornish pilgrimage to Rame Head Chapel revived’ after a five year hiatus. Ken Ryles, the Church Treasurer at that time stated ‘The pilgrimage used to be an annual event for at least 20 years until 2007’. In fact he could have said 700 hundred years but he was certainly right to conclude ‘sometimes you don't realise what you've got until it's gone’.

A more detailed version of the history of the ancient track is available here as a downloadable pdf, whilst sources relating to the ancient track can be seen here.

St michael’s chapel

Click any of the above images to magnify and for more information

Whether one adheres to a religious belief or not, no one visiting Rame Head can be unaware of its spiritual significance. This is why the tiny chapel dedicated to the Archangel St Michael was originally built. St Michael is the guardian of spiritual sanctuaries, usually situated on high rocky outcrops frequently overlooking major sea lanes as at St Michael’s Mount or Mont St Michel but also on high places inland as at Brentor on Dartmoor and on the summit of the Tor at Glastonbury.

During the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, it is believed that the headland contained a promontory fort probably with wooden palisades. According to Historic England, the landward side was infilled to provide a causeway and guarded entry and on the eastern side there are traces of round houses. The land was then owned by Ordwulf the High Reeve of Devon (c. 921 – c. 993) who founded Tavistock Abbey in 981 and granted this land to the abbey after that date. It is probable that a building existed where the chapel is today in Celtic times but the style of the present building and that of the church of St Germanus at Rame may suggest a parallel history, or even that they are the work of the same craftsmen.

The church dedicated to St Germanus bishop of Auxerre, who made two trips to Britain at the close of the Roman period, replaced an earlier Norman church and it is known that much of it dates from the middle of the 13th century. The connection between the two is underlined by the fact that the chapel was first licensed for mass in 1397 when by then the church was fully operational. From very early there was an annual pilgrimage from the church to the chapel, all of which makes it doubly important to consider the area between the two as an historical entity. 

The chapel has been used from the earliest times as a lookout and watch tower as well as a place or worship, including at the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the so called ‘Second Armada’ in 1779.  Both the chapel and the church were restored in the 1880s by the 4th Earl of Mt Edgcumbe. 

World War II

In World War II the chapel was used to house equipment for an RAF Chain Home Radar Station to provide warnings of low flying enemy aircraft approaching Plymouth. The concrete platform built on the south side of the chapel has evidence of two aerial mounting brackets associated with this use.  Further down the slope there is evidence of a light anti-aircraft gun emplacement from the same period. 

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