The myth of Lyonesse has echoed through Cornish folklore for centuries – a kingdom lost in one night, now resting beneath the waves between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly.
Part fantasy, part faded memory of real geological change, today, as sea levels rise again, the line between story and science blurs once more.
Here at Sustainable PZ, we’ve been working with The Gardeners’ House to tell this story as it applies to us now, using the lessons we can learn from it to inform how we look at the future of West Penwith.
But, first, what is the story of Lyonesse?
The story of Lyonesse
Back to the sunset bound of Lyonnesse—
A land of old upheaven from the abyss
By fire, to sink into the abyss again;
Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt,
And the long mountains ended in a coast
Of ever-shifting sand, and far away
The phantom circle of a moaning sea.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The story of Lyonesse regales a kingdom lost to the waves off West Cornwall, drowned in one single night by a vicious storm.
Like the Greek legend of the lost city of Atlantis, according to local and ancient folklore, the story tells how there were once 140 churches and their villages that existed between Lands End and the Isles of Scilly. The land was rich and fertile, and the inhabitants lived happily off the land.
But after the landscape was lost to the sea, the remains were said to lie beneath the water, no more than 300ft deep. Some stories say where the Seven Stones reef lies today is where a great cathedral once stood, with fishermen still able to hear the bells on a quiet day.
Found in both historical accounts and medieval literature, there is no one story of Lyonesse, but rather a collection of fragmented stories that come together. The myth has inspired countless literary masterpieces, even ensnaring the likes of William Blake and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who are credited for the myth’s deep connection to Arthurian legend.
Today, it’s thought the first stories of Lyonesse could have originated almost 4,000 years ago, amid evidence of real geological change.
Evidence of a lost land
Often, the tales we tell have some element of truth. And, in the case of Lyonesse, it’s found that some geological evidence could prove how there was real environmental change at the time of the story’s origins.
For example, flint and chalk formations found on Tresco and Lands End have been found to be exactly similar to Eocene river granules of Devon and Dorset [1]. This indicates that, a very long time ago, the islands were part of a broad high level region, over which rivers radiating from Dartmoor flowed outwards to the edge of the continental shelf 200 miles west of Scilly.
Likewise, through word of mouth, fishermen are said to have hauled up small diamond shapes panes of glass set in lead, while the tops of buildings are said to have been seen on calm clear days. Meanwhile, a stone column in Sennen Church measuring just 18 inches is said to have been retrieved by fishermen from the lost land.
Imagining resilience through Myth & Sea
We know that the story of Lyonesse is likely to be an exaggerated folk memory of a succession of comparatively minor flooding taking place over a long period of time. But what can it tell us about how our landscape is changing today? Could it hold secrets about how we can build for a more resilient future?
With this story in mind, we have created a free, interactive workshop where we dive deep into the drowned past to reimagine our shared future.
A space for serious play and creative resilience, we draw on folklore, community memory, environmental change, and collective dreaming, working with literature from The Gardeners’ House Archive.
In this workshop, we:
- Explore the myth and mystery of Lyonesse and other lost lands
- Discover the hidden layers beneath our surrounding waters – from submerged forests to flint-filled valleys
- Invent new mythologies and tools for survival – will we become merfolk? Ride underwater trains? Build floating towns?
The sessions are all about bringing your curiosity, your ideas (as silly or serious as you like), and a willingness to think differently about the stories we tell and the futures we build.
Let’s turn rising tides into rising voices!
Our next workshop is on 9th October at The Gardeners’ House. Book your free spot, here.
[1]: The Fortunate Islands The Story of the Isles of Scilly, R.L. Bowley – Gardeners House ARCHIVE
