Holy Trinity Parish Church, St. Day

The churchyard sits quietly on a gentle slope above St. Day village, the tower visible for miles across the Cornish landscape. Holy Trinity is a proper working church with roots going back centuries, though what you see now is largely Victorian restoration - solid rather than showy, which rather suits the place.

Inside, it's light and airy with the sort of peace you only get in parish churches away from the tourist routes. The altar and furnishings are unpretentious, and there's a decent collection of monuments if you're into that sort of thing. It's the kind of church that rewards a wander round the churchyard too - old headstones, some cryptic inscriptions, the general quiet of it all.

This works well for anyone staying at Perran View Holiday Park, just six miles south towards Perranporth - it's a natural diversion if you're driving through mid-Cornwall and fancy something genuine rather than staged. Walkers might combine it with a proper hike across the moorland hereabouts. History types will find it a good example of how most Cornish villages kept their parish churches while everything else changed around them.

Free to enter, open during daylight hours pretty much always - it's a working church, not a tourist attraction. You'll need quarter of an hour, maybe half an hour if you're lingering. Go on a weekday morning and you'll likely have it entirely to yourself.