09/03/2026
St Piran Parade in Perranporth
Hundreds of people made their way through the dunes at Perran Sands near Perranporth on Sunday to follow in the footsteps of the patron saint of Cornwall on St Piran's Day. The annual event of a procession and St Piran's play in the sand dunes is a gloriously rousing sight of black and white flags and bright yellow daffodils.
The pilgrimage, started by Reverend David Clues, vicar of Perranzabuloe Parish, with a blessing at 2pm. The procession then set off into the dunes, with Piper Merv Davy playing Cornish bagpipes at the front, whilst St Piran led the way, followed by his first disciples, the badger, boar and fox.
As part of the St Piran's play, the disciples carried with them the lost relics of St Piran, including a copper bell and chalice, both of which were said to have been St Piran's whilst he was at the Oratory at Perran Sands. St Piran's Oratory, one of Britain's oldest places of Christian worship, is believed to have been built on the site where the Cornish patron saint landed from Ireland and established a Christian centre in the sixth or seventh centuries AD.
After becoming engulfed in wind-blown sand, the chapel was lost for centuries, before being rediscovered, excavated, entombed, reburied and finally excavated again most recently in 2014. As part of the proceedings this year, there was a moment of silence for participants to remember Eileen Carter, who founded the St Piran Trust, to campaign for the excavation and future protection of St Piran's Oratory, and sadly died at the end of last year.
With holy water taken from the Oratory in one of St Piran's relics and splashed over onlookers by the fox, the procession then moved onwards over the dunes to the second church.
Finally, as is tradition each year, people put daffodils into the nearby St Piran's Cross, which is generally considered to be the oldest Celtic cross in Cornwall.
