St Levan was originally part of the parish of St Buryan and has been closely connected with it. It is situated in the Deanery and Hundred of Penwith. It is bounded on the North by St Buryan, on the East and South by the ocean, and on the West by Sennen. The parish is ten miles West of Penzance. Porthcurno, on the South coast, was the site of the first cable laid across the Atlantic. Not far from Porthcurno is the Minack Open Air Theatre, built into the cliffs by Rowena Cade in 1932, which has the ocean as a backdrop to the stage. The principal village is Teryn (or Treen).