King Athelstan stopped to pray at Saint Buriana's chapel, of which little now remains, during his conquest of Cornwall before his campaign against the Scilly Isles.

Upon his triumphant return, having subdued Scilly, Athelstan endowed a church in honour of Saint Buriana with a charter that established St Buryan as one of the earliest monasteries in Cornwall.

[7][8][failed verification] Because of the nature of the original charter from King Athelstan, the parish of St Buryan was long regarded as a Royal Peculiar,[8] thus falling directly under the jurisdiction of the English monarch as a separate 'diocese', rather than the Church.

[9] Only two of the King's appointed Deans appear to have actually lived in the 'diocese' of St Buryan for more than a few months, and the combination of these factors led to the subsequent ruinous state of the church in 1473.

[10] The Church's tower currently houses six handsome bells that call the faithful of St Buryan to worship.

However, a survey of the church in the late 19th century detailed that only three bells were present, dated 1638, 1681 and 1738,[11] suggesting that the work was never completed and also that at least two restorations had occurred during the intervening years.

The improved peal was then rehung in a new heavy-duty steel frame; however, the bells again fell into disuse due to a lack of interest from local ringer groups who much preferred the eight-bell peal of St Mary's church in nearby Penzance, and the bells soon became unringable.