St Augustine's Church is situated at the highest point of Penarth Head and has been used as a navigation landmark for ships for many years.

The church stands on the site of a much earlier church, probably dating from 1240, which was demolished and replaced by the existing church in 1865/66.

The new church was designed by the famous Victorian architect William Butterfield and is described as one of his best polychromatic churches. Its cost of £10,000 was financed by the Countess Plymouth. A saddle-back tower was kept in the new design at the request of the admiralty. The church also includes a chancel with a southern transept and a northern vestry. The aisled nave has a tower on the south-west and a porch to the north-west. It is constructed with Leckwith limestone facings, bathstone dressings, and red Staffordshire tiles on the roof. There are polychrome brick patterns and bathstone dressings on red brick facings in the interior. The interior decorative features include brass altar rails, chequered marble reredos, and a patterned tiled floor. Fully diapered arcades of chamfered arches are supported by alternating octagonal and cylindrical piers. The splendid church organ dates from 1895.

The oval churchyard contains a medieval cross dating from the original church, but is now much weathered and most of the detailed decoration has vanished.

St Augustine's is thought to be the most ambitious work of Butterfield in Wales and an outstanding example of a Victorian Gothic Church.