Another fabulous Giant was Bolster, pictured here on the left, whose stride spanned six miles and who fell in love with the beautiful St Agnes, only to be betrayed and fooled into killing himself. He was a bad tempered man, who terrorised the countryside. She asked him to prove his love for her by filling up a hole in the cliff at Chapel Porth with his own blood. She knew the hole was bottomless, he did not. He died of the loss of blood, and even today the sea at Chapel Porth is stained red with his blood
Then there was Jack the Giant Killer, a farmer's son from near Lands End at the time of King Arthur. Cormoran, the Giant of St Michael's Mount was terrorising the surrounding area and was stealing cattle.Jack decided to earn the reward being offered for killing Cormoran. He dug a pit near Morvah, disguised the pit with sticks, and lured the giant to the pit by blowing his horn. The giant fell into the hole, jack dispatched him with a blow from his pickaxe, then filled in the hole. Even today there is a large stone near Morvah church marking the Giants Cave, and sometimes voices are heard coming from it.
Perhaps the most wicked of the giants was The Wrath of Portreath. he lived in a huge cavern known to sailors as his cupboard. he would wade out to sea , grab whole ships and take them back to his cupboard tied to his belt. And the stones that he hurled at ships trying to avoid him can still be seen at low tide forming a dangerous reef off Godrevy Head. Once back there he would devour the sailors for his supper.The cupboard lost its roof in recent times, but can still be seen near St Ives
. One day a beautiful woman in a long dress came and sat at the back of the church. She came regularly and one evening she lured him t the stream tat runs through the village, and from there down to Pendower Cove. he was never seen again. But some years later a mermaid approached a ship at anchor in the cove, and asked the captain to remove his anchor which was resting on her front door. She said she wanted to return to their husband Mathey and their children
Then there were the Spriggans. they were ugly and were feared. They had large heads on small bodies. They stole babies, raised whilwinds to damage the crops, and terrified the lone traveller.
The Knockers were elfin creatures that lived in the mines. The miners treated the knockers with respect. they left food out for them. it was believed that anyone who was disrespectful to Knockers would suffer bad luck When a mine closed, the Knockers lived on in the abandoned mine.
Perhaps the greatest of the Cornish saints was St Petroc, who both converted the populace to Christianity, and also slew the last dragon in Cornwall. He created monasteries in Padstow and in Bodmin.
There are many tales of the church bells from the lost cities being heard.The Seven Stones Rocks to the west of Lands End are believed to be the remains of a great city. Fishermen called it the Town, and have dragged up doors and windows in their nets in this area. Sailors tell of hearing the church bells below the sea also in this area.
In the 1930's a journalist from the News Chronicle was staying on the coast, and was woken by muffled bells in the night, which his hosts told him were the bells of Lyonesse. Yet with the coming of aqualung diving, no one yet has found Lyonesse.
- The spire of Towednack Church
- Towednack church, not far from St Ives, has a very squat tower. the story goes that it was the devil himself who prevented the tower being taller. Apparently after each day's work byu the medieval stonemasons, the devil came in the night and removed the stones that they had added that day. In the end they gave up the struggle, and capped off the tower at the low height you can see today.
- Another, unrelated tradition at Towednack is the annual Cuckoo Feast on April 25th. It all goes back hundreds of years tto a man putting a log on his fire, and out flew a cuckoo from a hole in the log. He caught and kept the bird, and apparently resolved to commemorate the event with a cuckoo feast each year
- Poundstock and its Pirates
- The church of St Winwaloe in Poundstock, near Widemouth Bay, has had more than its fair share of rogue vicars. In the 14th century, the curate was a member of a gang of pirates who attacked ships sailing off Widemouth Bay. This Rev William penfold fell out with the gang, and in 1357 the gang tracked him down to the church, and burst in while he was holdiong a service. Penfold was brutally murdered at the altar, and his ghost still haunts the church.
- A later vicar was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in a murder, and yet another hanged for leading a revolt in Tudor times against the changes being made in the Book of Common Prayer.
- St Catherine's Church at Temple on Bodmin Moor
- Before the passing of the Marriage Act of 1753, which forbade clandestine marriages, St Catherines had a dubious reputation. It is a tiny church, built in the 12th century by the Knights Templar. it was designed as a rufuge on Bodmin Moor for travellers going to the Cornish ports further west. The church was granted the right to conduct marriages without the need for Banns to be read. This led to the church being used for marriages of convenience, and it developed a very bad reputation
- Boscastles Ghostly Bells
- There are no bells in the tower of Forrabury Church, but it is said that they can be heard ringing beneath the waves where they came to rest. Three bells were ordered by William, Lord of Bottreaux Castle, to ward off the plague in the Middle Ages. The bells never reached the church, as the ship carrying them sunk in the bay just offshore. Lord Willaim was struck by the plague and died. And the ghostly peal of the bells can still be heard when a storms sweeps across the bay
