St Levan

St Levan is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is rural with a number of hamlets of varying size with Porthcurno probably being the best known. Hewn out of the cliff at Minack Point and overlooking the sea to the Logan Rock is the open-air Minack Theatre, the inspiration of Rowena Cade in the early 1930s. St Levan lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south-west England from Somerset to Dorset passes by on the cliffs. There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated for the vegetation and geology, and Gwennap Head in particular, is favoured by birdwatchers, many who travel the length and breadth of Britain to watch rare seabirds. Geography The parish church is about south west of Penzance. The parish measures and the population at the 2011 census was 459. The river in the valley at Nanjizal forms the parish boundary with Sennen and is 3 miles south of the Land's End. From Nanjizal heading south and east, via Gwennap Head, there is 4 miles of coast to Penberth Cove and the boundary with St Buryan. The parish encompasses a number of small settlements which include Bottoms, Penberth, Polgigga, Porthcurno, Porthgwarra, Trebehor, Treen (the chief village) and Trethewey. Both Penberth and Porthgwarra in the past had small fishing fleets despite not having a harbour; the boats were hauled up the slipways when not in use. A small fleet continues to fish out of Penberth, for bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), crabs and mackerel (Scomber scombrus). History Neolithic flints have been found dating human activity in the area to 5000 years ago. Fifteen hundred pieces of worked flint and chert from the Bronze Age were found during the 1914 excavation at Pedn-men-an-mere and an Iron Age cliff castle at Treryn Dinas may date back 2000 years or more.