Phone Photography 20 - Rame Head Chapel

Rame Head is a coastal headland in Cornwall, south-west England.

The pictures show one view towards the headland from near Tregantle Fort, and then two pictures from near the Coast Guard Lookout Station.

The Chapel is no longer in use but remains as an intact shell, which testifies to its solid construction being in a place where storms and winds can become mightily feirce.

Before being made into a chapel there had been a hermits residence on the site and, many years before that, it's inaccessibility made it an ideal spot for Iron Age folks to use as a fortified safe place.

From the car park by the Coast Guard Station it is easy to be deceived into thinking it's an easy stroll up to see the chapel and views it affords.

First the land dips sharply down the way and then there is a steep and winding path with worn steps. The effort is worth it as the vista along the coast and out to sea is lovely while the chapel and 2nd World War concrete platform behind it are disparate constructions worth investigation.

My favourite trip up to the site was one October evening where a clear sky allowed me to practice night-time photography.

However, as you see below, the headland itself is photogenic. Research tells us that the chapel, when in use, was whitewashed. What a site it must have been to those fourteenth and fifteenth century worshippers when it gleamed as a low summer sun shone on the walls.

text and pictures by stuartcturnbull