Hilltop Chapel

This beautiful chapel which is situated on promontory at St Ives.

At the top of The Island in St Ives, surrounded on three sides by the sea, stands the medieval chapel of St Nicholas, also known as the Island Chapel (though to be pedantic, The Island is not, in fact, an island at all, but a promontory).

It isn't clear when the chapel was built. It is entirely possible that a timber chapel stood here as early as the 5th century when the first Irish missionaries arrived in this area of Cornwall. We do know that there was a stone chapel on this site in the early medieval period and the present building can be dated to the 14th century on stylistic grounds.

St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and the chapel was a focal point of worship for local sailors.

The chapel was always the responsibility of the town authorities. It is built of granite rubble under a slate roof with gable ends.Read more