A wooded glen near Tintagel where the River Trevillet drops through a hole worn in the rock into a deep basin, St Nectan's Kieve
St Nectan’s Glen is a steep, wooded cleft above Tintagel, and the reason people walk up it is the waterfall at the top. The little River Trevillet drops about sixty feet, but instead of falling clear it pours through a round hole it has worn in the slate and lands in a basin below, called St Nectan’s Kieve, kieve being an old word for a tub or basin. The name comes from St Nectan, a saint said to have had a cell here in the sixth century.
The glen has long been treated as a spiritual spot, and you will see ribbons tied to branches, coins pressed into bark and little stacks of stones near the fall. Whatever you make of that, it is a quiet, green sort of place. Access is on a woodland path up from the Trethevy road, and there is a paid entry at the falls themselves near the top.
You are in Arthurian country here, so it pairs well with Tintagel Castle on its clifftop, and the harbour village of Boscastle is just along the coast if you want a longer day of it.
