Rocky Valley is a small valley with spectacular scenery in north Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (in the parish of Tintagel).

The valley is carved by the Trevillet River in Trethevy

Trethevy

Trethevy is a hamlet in north Cornwall, United Kingdom.It is situated midway between the villages of Tintagel and Boscastle in the civil parish of Tintagel. Trethevy has a number of historic buildings and is an early Christian site...

 around one mile east of Tintagel

Tintagel

Tintagel is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is ....

. At their highest point the slate canyon walls tower over seventy feet above the river below. Rocky Valley was mentioned in travel books as a place of exceptional beauty as early as 1897. The valley is owned by the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 and is home to 161 different species of moss.

The South West Coast Path

South West Coast Path

The South West Coast Path is Britain's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Since it rises and falls with every river mouth, it is also one of the more...

 descends into and out of the valley a little way inland due to the sheer cliffs on the coast; the rocks at the seaward end of the valley are dangerous and people have been swept off by freak waves.

In 2007 some of the bridges over the Trevillet River were washed away during flash floods caused by heavy rains. These have since been replaced.

Buildings

Rocky Valley is home to two mills. Trevillet Mill is now a private residence and was made famous by an 1851 painting by Thomas Creswick

Thomas Creswick

Thomas Creswick was an English landscape painter and illustrator.-Biography:Creswick was born in Sheffield . He was the son of Thomas Creswick and Mary Epworth and educated at Hazelwood, near Birmingham.At Birmingham he first began to paint...

. The second, Trethevy Mill, is derelict and was used in the eighteenth century to manufacture woollen textiles.

There are a number of dates carved into the stonework of the derelict Trethevy Mill.

• W. T. 1779 - William Taylor; the earliest date identified so far.
• D. R. 1794 - D. Rogers.
• T. B. 1797 - Thomas Brown.
• G. B. 1813 - G. Blewett; this date marks the extension of the mill.

Maze carvings

Rock carvings discovered in 1948 are believed by some to be from the early Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 (1800-1400 BC). The two carvings take the form of circular labyrinth

Labyrinth

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...

s. Modern scholars believe that, as the labyrinths were carved on a quarried wall with a metal tool, they are likely to be less than three hundred years old. In 2005 it was claimed that another carving can be seen, much fainter than the first two, leading to speculation that the two well-defined carvings are copies of ones that are much earlier: this has yet to be proved.

The area around these carvings has become somewhat of a focus for Neopaganism

Neopaganism

Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...

and new agers.