St. Nonna’s Church of Altarnun is known as the “Cathedral of the Moors.” St. Nonna was the mother of St. David and left her native Wales around the year 527. She was one of many Celtic missionaries who passed through Cornwall on their way to Europe in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Our driver, Jon, asked us to guess what these steps were for. I guessed correctly that they were steps on which to mount a horse, which is how people came to the church in the 15th century.

The church as it now stands dates from the early 15th century. It is known for 79 carved bench ends which were carved in oak by Robert Daye during the twenty years of 1510-1530.

Of course I had to take a picture of the organ! Built by Heard and Co., it was originally in another church, Vogue Beloth Chapel and installed in 2017 by David Gridley, at a cost of 36,500 GBP.

But why this church is important to Doc Martin fans, is that it was in this church that the wedding of Doc Martin (Martin Clunes) to Louisa Glasson (Caroline Catz) took place. They fell in love by the end of season one, and the Doc even proposed. But this first attempt at marriage ended up with both Martin and Louisa backing out on the day of the wedding. After Louisa left for London, she came back to Portwenn only to surprise Martin with her being pregnant with his baby. After the baby was born, the wedding finally took place here at St. Nonna’s in season seven. There is a small display board in the church with pictures of the happy couple.

In the next post I’ll continue with photos from our 8-hour Cornwall tour.