Abandoned Graveyard for Sacred Dogs

13/08/19

This one was mentioned to me by a childhood friend of my Dad. By far the hardest to research of all the local spots.

Supposedly a burial ground of a sacred dog, there were rumours of a home movie from the late 1950s to early 1960s depicting members of the Essenes dressed in robes, carrying a casket to a remote part of Jericho Valley where there is said to be a ring of trees with a small clearing in the middle and burying it there.

I found one post in an online forum from 2011 where someone recounts their spiritual awakening after ingesting magic mushrooms and becoming fixated on the location to the point where they had plans of going there to dig up whatever had been buried, later to be drawn to Christianity rather than Paganism and decided to go there, lighting candles and leaving a copy of the bible.

In this same forum a commenter who seems to know a lot about this location wanted to talk to the person who had originally made the post, claiming to have access to a documentary made about it as well as the original home video. Some other commenters on the forum also alluded to rich people and wanting to keep quiet which piqued my interest even more.

My partner and I decided to search for it and after lots of aimless walking around couldn’t find it. At one point we had parked the car off a beaten track which had caught the interest of a local man when we’d come back after yet again not finding anything. I asked him if he had any knowledge of the graveyard and he had never heard of it, even having lived there more than 20 years.

We agreed to head back home after this as it was getting late and the light was poor. That evening I had another look at the forum and found an email address for the person who claimed to have a spiritual awakening there. I decided to message "A" first though to see what he knows as the person who started the forum had written it back in 2011 and I get the feeling they won’t readily talk about it as even the commenters seemed pretty cagey.

Over the next few days I’m going to see if there’s any way of viewing the original home video or finding the documentary, as well as more information on the Essenes.

People commenting on the forum mention that if you were to go there, there is a warning on a rock by the entrance and people in the local house are likely to approach you to find out your intentions but given that this was written almost 10 years ago I’m choosing to take this with a grain of salt.

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13/08/19 Correspondance with A

Dark Tourism England: Hey A, looking to find the graveyard as I’m in St Agnes a lot, been trekking around Trevellas Valley but can’t seem to find it. I’ve looking it up but I’ve only found one thing online about it but everyone seems super hush hush and not wanting to share anything publicly. Hope you’re well x

A: Hi, I'm well thanks. Bit of background. The Essenes were a small cult or group or whatever, and when I lived in the Trevellas Valley when I was young they owned a lot if the valley, including our house. They had a big house much further up the valley, they lived in the valley because the story was that Joseph of Arimathea brought Jesus there when they were trading tin.

A: There weren't many of them left by the 70s. I only saw them once, four of them walking down the road in long capes like Hammer vampires, very spooky. They had these sacred dogs, and when one died it was buried in the graveyard opposite their house. Various locals dug the graves up during the 70s and 80s looking for treasure, there was none. Sometime in the 80s they sold the big house and our house and were gone...

A: Their house is visible still. There is a footpath from Trevellas Beach past the Blue Hills tin streaming place up the Jericho valley all the way to the Perranporth road. Their place was near the Perranporth road end but is easier to describe from the beach end.

(From here my Dad's friend gave me directions to find the site)

A: Another related story from my mother. Apparently, I can't remember why, one day the Essenes set the valley on fire during a magical battle with this white witch type woman who lived on the edge of Wheal Kitty (we had an exciting childhood!) and then this woman put it out with rain. Or so our Mum said. There was also meant be a ghostly monk in the valley, around where the Essenes were.

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The Essenes

20/08/19

I had sent an email to the parish church of St Agnes to see if they had any knowledge of the Essenes and a day later I'd gotten a response to say that there were no known Essene graves in St Agnes graveyard nor were there any relevant records in any of the family histories.

I took to Facebook and joined a group called Cornish Nostalgic Memories and put a post up there asking for any information. Hours went by and nothing helpful in the comments until I recieved a comment a couple of days later to say that I should try the archives in Redruth but to call ahead so that they can ready any relevant records for me.

***text to be added***

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17/08/19

After a few days of wet weather my partner and I decided to head back to Jericho Valley with A's directions and allow more time to find it. At first we did go in the wrong direction because we used a different starting point as we had nowhere to leave the car. Half an hour or so later we finally came across what we had been searching for although there was something really odd we had spotted when walking a particular way down into the valley, towards the site.

While walking down a narrow path to the bottom of the valley, we noticed what appeared to be unmarked headstones placed against the old brickwork. They looked deliberate and after looking closer behind one realised that they had been there a very long time, due to the lack of moss or any growth of any other kind on the wall they were leaning on.

One of the "headstones" found.

The gate to the graveyard was incredibly unremarkable, no signs as to where it lead, to the point where you wouldn't even notice it when walking past. There were overgrown steps leading up to it and past it to the graveyard but due to the amount of weeds we could tell that no one had set foot in there for a very, very long time. Even I wasn't sure that we had found the right place until my partner (who had gone a little ahead, I'm not the steadiest on my feet!) said excitedly that this was it.

We looked around the overgrown graveyard and immediately noticed we were surrounded by an almost perfect circle of trees. The forum referred to a circle of stones so that was our point of reference to confirm that we were in the right place. Looking ahead we could make out where weeds had grown oddly, they were forming a dome and there was a circle around it where nothing could grow. After moving some moss we came across what could only be described as sage coloured, rectangular bathroom tiles in a circle approximately 2 metres in diameter. It was eerily silent save for the sounds of barking dogs in the distance.

The circle overgrown.

I got to clearing as much moss as possible with my trainers, we genuinely did not think about how overgrown the graveyard would be so did not come prepared. My partner cleared away as many brambles as he could using a branch he had found next to the grave. The more overgrowth we moved, the more fascinated we were. Within the green tiles were what looked like slates but they were so vibrant, even after such a long time, looking almost silver and shimmering in the light.

Sage coloured tiles and some of the silver slate.

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We are considering coming back with the right tools when the weather is better to clear the area properly without disturbing any of the tiles. This graveyard interests me greatly and I would love to see it in its former glory. Now that we know where it is and I have the GPS coordinates noted it should be easy to get back to. Updates to follow.

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References:

The Curious Case of King Dog forum post: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread710147/pg1