Carharrack

Coordinates: 50°13′48″N 5°10′55″W / 50.230°N 5.182°W / 50.230; -5.182

Carharrack (Cornish: Karardhek) is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated two miles (3 km) east of Redruth in a former mining area.

The parish is of a rural/residential character, albeit with an industrial (mostly mining) past and relics of the past abound, primarily in the form of abandoned and broken down engine house buildings. The parish is comparatively small in area, and is bounded to the north and northwest by St Day parish, to the east and southeast by Gwennap parish, and to the southwest and west by Lanner parish.

Until 1985, Carharrack was part of the parish of Gwennap but it became a civil parish in its own right with the first meeting of Carharrack Parish Council on 28 May 1985.

Toponymy

The derivation of the modern form of the name Carharrack is uncertain. Craig Wetherhill suggests it is a corruption of the Cornish ker/cayr Ardhek meaning Arthroc's fort. Eric Rabjohns, a locally based local-historian, while acknowledging this possibility, also advances another two contenders. The first is that the name refers to a dwelling of religious purpose, a meeting place for travellers, originating from Carharrack's proximity to the pilgrimage trail between Canterbury and St Michael's Mount, which is known to have passed through the nearby villages of St Day to the north and Lanner to the south. The final option, again based on a corruption of the Cornish, this time of Car (or Caer) Harrack meaning a camp, enclosure, or settlement near the rock or Carn, presumably referring to the mass of Carn Marth whose granite bulk overshadows the village. Each derivative has a degree of evidence to support it.