;John Norden In 1584 map maker
John Norden wrote, 'The peninsula is called by the pretty name of Roseland, being derived from Rhos, the Celtic word for heath or gorse.' He goes on to say that, "Roseland is a circuit of land lying between the creek of Falmouth haven and the sea." ;John Whitaker ''Lake's Parochial History of the County of Cornwall'' (1870) includes Revd
John Whitaker’s discussion of the Roseland when dealing with
Philleigh parish. He notes that the villages of
Veryan and
Ruanlanihorne each has its church in a valley, the area which would have been inhabited first as the valleys were more sheltered and benefited from soil washed down from the hillsides. At the top of the hills lay an extensive heath (or rhos/rôs). Whitaker believed that the area was first named 'Roseland' when the English came to settle in 936. The parish of Philleigh was carved out of the parish of Ruanlanihorne and was originally called Eglos-rôs. Two fields were tithable in common between Ruanlanihorne and Philleigh (Higher and Lower Congier) which he claims proves the two parishes were once one. According to Hals (in ''Lake's Parochial History'') St Just in Roseland was rated under the jurisdiction of Eglos-rôs (Philleigh) in the Domesday Book. From this it seems reasonable to assume that the first people to use the term ‘Roseland’ understood it to cover the parishes which contained the ‘rhos/rôs ’, so the parishes of Veryan, Ruanlanihorne and Philleigh have a good claim to be part of the Roseland. So it seems to make sense to regard the Roseland as starting at Daddiport Bridge at the foot of Reskivers Hill. The stream which comes down the hillside to Daddiport Bridge is the boundary between Veryan and Tregony parishes, thus continuing the water boundary of the peninsula. That is the way locals now see the Roseland Peninsula. ;20th century writers In
The Roseland: between River and Sea, Laurence O'Toole described it rather differently, including the parishes of
Gerrans,
St Anthony in Roseland,
St Just, and
St Mawes and so only taking the parishes that protrude on that thin arm of the land. Place House at St Anthony was the seat of the
Spry family for several hundred years. It has been enviously described by
Joe Bennett in his travel book ''Mustn't Grumble'', 2006. ;Murder of Lyn Bryant In a highly publicised case, a 41-year-old local woman named
Lyn Bryant was murdered while out walking her dog on the peninsula near
Ruan High Lanes on 20 October 1998. The murder featured heavily in
the press,
media and on
Crimewatch, but her attacker has never been identified and the murder remains one of the highest profile unsolved murders in the UK. At the time, police believed that her random and apparently motiveless killing might be linked to the murder of 14-year-old
Kate Bushell in another rural lane in
Exeter one year previously. Both had been randomly killed with knives while out walking their dogs down isolated lanes in the south west. An unknown man had been seen talking to Bryant by Ruan Methodist Church that afternoon, only minutes before she was murdered only 100 yards (91 meters) away. Earlier in the day a different man with a full beard in a small white van (who was apparently not local) had also been seen following her in her car. In 2018, a DNA profile of Bryant's attacker was identified. The investigation into her death is one of the largest ever conducted by
Devon and Cornwall Police and had cost nearly £2 million by 2018. There remains a £10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of her killer. ==Film and television==