Saint
The Twin Sisters
One sister drowned. The other built two towers.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Twin medieval church towers inside a Roman fort
- Legend from
- Local tradition recorded 19th century (Harper 1904)
- Tone
- Curious
Two towers on a crumbling cliff. Built, the story goes, by a nun whose sister drowned here, so no other sailor would.
The twin towers of Reculver's ruined church stand on the cliff edge inside the remains of a Roman fort. Harper tells the story that two sisters, one an abbess, were sailing to fulfil a vow to Our Lady of Broadstairs when they were wrecked here for want of a sea-mark. The abbess survived, but her sister drowned, so she raised the twin towers as a memorial and a guide for sailors. Barham turned this into the comic tale of the Brothers of Birchington. Sailors were said to take it as a good omen if they saw the towers clearly as they passed.