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St Michael's Chapel on Roche Rock is a small medieval chapel built upon a distinctive granite outcrop near the village of Roche in Cornwall. The chapel dates from the fifteenth century and stands as a remarkable example of late medieval religious architecture, constructed directly upon the exposed bedrock at the summit of the rock formation some sixty feet above the surrounding landscape. The building is a simple rectangular structure of stone, originally comprising a single chamber with a small window and doorway, and would have served as a place of private devotion and pilgrimage. Its dramatic hilltop location and survival as a largely intact structure of the period make it a significant monument to late medieval piety and the relationship between sacred sites and the natural landscape in Cornwall.
Medieval chapel of St Michael's on Roche Rock is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1006664. View the official record →
St Michael's Chapel on Roche Rock is a small medieval chapel built upon a distinctive granite outcrop near the village of Roche in Cornwall. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1006664.
Medieval chapel of St Michael's on Roche Rock is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1006664.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Earlier prehistoric hillfort and round cairn at St Stephen's Beacon (6 km), Round 310m east of Carloggas Moor Farm (6.2 km), Menacuddle Well (6.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Medieval chapel of St Michael's on Roche Rock's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Medieval chapel of St Michael's on Roche Rock stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.