MysteryFamous
Lost Lyonesse
One rider outran the sea. The rest are still down there.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Granite headland looking out to sea
- Legend from
- Medieval romance; local tradition
- Tone
- Eerie
Out there, under the water, they say a hundred and forty churches still stand.
From Land's End you look out over the sea towards the Isles of Scilly. Cornish tradition says a fertile country called Lyonesse, or Lethowsow, once joined them to the mainland. Robert Hunt says 140 churches stood there, and that the Seven Stones reef marks the site of a great city. When the sea came in, one ancestor of the Trevilian family had time to move his family and cattle, but at last had to fly for his life on a fast horse. Later traditions say the land sank in a single night, perhaps on 11 November 1099. In Arthurian romance Lyonesse is the homeland of Tristan.