Carne Cottage is at the top of Zennor Hill, which rises up above the village of Zennor in Cornwall.
I walk up the hill frequently, as I live at the bottom of it, sometimes just to do a few sketches and sometimes to create temporary sculptural works using materials such as umbrellas and brightly coloured lengths of wood.
Carne Cottage (or the Carn, or Carn Cottage), was once owned by celebrated artist Bryan Wynter, and more recently by artist Margo Maeckelberghe.
Along with his more usual oil paintings Bryan Wynter created a number of mirror-based artworks that I particularly like in a series titled IMOOS. Read about them here.
The cottage has been in a completely ruined state for many years and is currently (late 2024) for sale for the second time in five years.
The estate agent’s description of the property makes great play about the remoteness of Carne Cottage, as though it is in an isolated and secluded location where no human activity will intrude on the site’s tranquility.
How wrong.
The location is on a popular footpath from Zennor, frequented by tourists, walkers (and the occasional motorbiker) going to explore the granite outcrops on the hill’s summit and to visit Zennor Quoit, a prehistoric burial chamber that’s only a short distance from the cottage.
The cottage itself is also an attraction for visitors who are interested in its alleged links to infamous satanist Aleister Crowley. Judging by the graffiti and detritus inside the house Carne Cottage is an occasional overnight stop-over for devil worshippers (or more likely it’s just teenagers who want to scare themselves).
I’ve been up the hill myself at night under a full moon and have come across other people up there at the same time. Fortunately they usually seem to be practitioners of “Earth Goddess” spirituality rather than people intent on a black mass. Carne Cottage and its environs hold a strong attraction to people of a particular type of mystical sensibility.
The hill top is visited less frequently outside the holiday season, obviously, but that’s partly because of the howling wind, driving rain or blanket fog to which the location is particularly prone (Bryan Wynter’s studio blew down in a gale). It’s a lovely location on a nice day, but when it’s not nice it’s bleak, bleak, bleak. The bleakness does have its own appeal though, if you’ve got the right temperament for it.
