Truro Cathedral: Cornish Celtic Way Exhibition, Luk Collet

This exhibition closes on the 9th August 2026

Moving from the Home Counties in 2000, it didn't take me long to understand that the religious landscape of Cornwall was different.  Where I grew up there were churches but there didn't seem to be a religious landscape in the same way.  In Cornwall, it is not just about churches, older traditions were adopted by the church and kept alive in a way that makes Christianity much more deeply engrained on the landscape here.

When the Roman Empire fell, the Dark Ages came to the British Isles.  Although Christianity had spread with the Romans, it largely left Great Britain, except for in the Celtic nations.  Here Christianity was allowed to grow with the people and for the people without an overseeing church authority.  As a result, they merged their own existing traditions with their faith and because their lives were linked to the land, Christianity became inextricably linked as well.

There is not only a network of churches but celtic crosses, sacred wells and paths used for religious paths.  Some of these are paths through Parishes where rests remain that were used to support coffins so that pallbearers could rest on their way to church.  The Saints Ways are a little different though.  Pilgrims from Ireland and Wales would travel by sea to Cornwall and cross from North coast to South before traveling on to Brittany by sea.  Many of these early pilgrims settled here and are remembered still in place names, becoming saints.  These saints often merged with earlier figures from folklore taking on the attributes of deities.

When the Roman Empire returned to the British Isles, this time as the Holy Roman Empire, they found pockets of Christianity that had continued to thrive.  While in other parts of the the islands, the church conquered and replaced the existing pagan landscape, in Cornwall, this was not possible.  The pagan landscape had been Christianised by the people that lived there.  This leaves Cornwall with an incredibly rich heritage and a slightly different flavour of Christianity from which other traditions have grown, such as the Wesleyan Methodists.

The Saints Way connects these routes in to a 125 mile continuous journey, which not only thoroughly explores Christianity in Cornwall but the landscape itself.  I had not realised that you could travel this route as a pilgrimage.  I thought such journeys were only found on the continent.  You can take a card and get stamps at particular locations to show you have completed the journey,  This was exactly what Belgian photographer, Luk Collet did, and he documented the entire journey.

It's always lovely to visit Truro Cathedral with it's stunning architecture and we were lucky that as we visited, a choir was practicing.  The exhibition itself is informative with 26 panels.  Each has a photograph or a diagram and a little bit of text.  The insight in to his journey is lovely, but is not very indepth.  It is a bite sized set of glimpses.  But,  each panel has a QR code that links to Luk's website and here you will find so much more.  

The journey is still broken down in the same way as the panels, with the same images and text, but additional elements are added.  Videos, featuring stunning drone footage.  Further information,  insights and musings.  Photographs.  It is all here.

As a European, Luk is well positioned to see what makes the Christian landscape here both unique and special.  For us, what we may take for granted and therefore struggle to clearly seem is obvious to Luk.  Whether this be our tradition of memorial benches that allow remembrance to move out of churchyards in to the landscape or Celtic crosses which are a powerful symbol we still connect to.

His beautiful photographs combine with excerpts from hymns and videos with beautiful drone footage.  History is interwoven throughout his journey, be it ancient history from Cornwall's distant past, the early religious story of Cornwall, the relics of Cornwall's industrial heritage as well as the more recent social history that touched his journey.  Through it all, the landscape of Cornwall carries it all.

I don't think it matters if you are Christian or not, spiritual or not, this Christianity is an important thread in the history of this land.  It has shaped and influenced just as much as mining, maybe even more so.  I don't think it is possible to truly understand Cornwall and explore it's landscapes without also exploring this aspect of it's history.

If you want to explore this aspect of Cornwall's history then Luk's website is a great way to do it.  The exhibition is too, but it feels like a gateway to the website, a taster.  It's a calm and beautiful window to look through.

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