This strikingly conical hill was formerly surmounted by two Iron Age ramparts defending an area 113m in diameter. The line of the inner bank, which may have been stone-built, is followed by the churchyard wall. Only faint traces of the outer rampart can be seen, on the north and east sides, about 18m beyond the churchyard wall.
There is a long recorded history of the area with the fort placed within an estate listed as Dimelihoc in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the reign of Henry VIII, St Denys was the only parish in Cornwall with the prefix 'Saint'.
An excerpt from 'Chronicles of British Kings' by Geoffrey of Gloucester:
"King Arther, king of the Britons took refuge in the South west from the Angles, a Turkonic race who invaded Britain during the 5th century. Demelihoc was a secondary fortress of Gorlios, King of Cornwall. We assume Dimelhoc was a dinas of dennis on which the church is built. During the fight with Arther, Gorlios put his wife Igeme in his strongest fort, Castle an Dinas, and he commanded Demelihoc hoping that he would survive. He was slain and his wife captured. She afterwards married Uther of round table fame."
Headline co-ordinates are for a pair or metal gates near the parking co-ordinates. Enter through these and turn to your left, head down the path towards the front door of the church.
Ensure you walk in a clockwise circular route around the church and you'll find the numbers without any problems. First off, when was the church rebuilt? 18AB
I took the cache page photo standing between two trees. If you can find the spot I stood in you should find a grave behind the tree to your right for William Bray (not that one!), what year was he born? 18CD.
Continue to follow the path around and as you approach the wall at the top you will encounter three almost identical headstones whose owners all belonged to the same family. On one of these stones there are two family members that share the same christian name. Subtract the lower number from the higher number to find EF. (Your answer is an EVEN number)
Nearby is a very unique memorial to an American soldier, Corporal Arthur James (Dixie) Allen. Corporal Allen was sadly KIA during the battle of Meuse-Argonne. The register of the names of those who fell in the Great War and are buried in the Cemeteries and Churchyards of Cornwall shows that out of a total of 725 graves that are found in 181 Cemeteries and Churchyards only the one at St Denys Churchyard is that of an American soldier. The age Corporal Allen would have been in the year of his internment in St Dennis = GH.
(During research for this I found a fascinating document that researched all of the names on the St Dennis war memorial. Who cares?)
Now you should have enough information to find the cache. Work out the final co-ords with the following.
N50 2(B-C-(E-B)).((D*G)/C)(B-G-A)(D-H-F) W004 5(E-A-F).(E-D-G)(A*B*C*F)(D+H)
IMPORTANT NOTE: This cache does not intend to discriminate, but if you weigh much more than about 14-15 stone you should probably not try to get to GZ. Go for a jog beforehand, or skip that choccy bar for your lunch, you will be too fat big-boned for this one - you have been warned!
**************************************
For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
*************************************
Cache placed within the Goss and Tregoss Moor SSSI with kind permission from Natural England