The village is about one mile west of Lostwithiel and five miles south of Bodmin. The Saints Way runs past Lanlivery. Helman Tor, Red Moor and Breney Common nature reserves lie within the parish.
The primary school in Lanlivery village is over 100 years old, and has it’s own preschool. Lanlivery village hall was used as a school in the mid 19th century and became a village hall thanks to the effort of the Village Hall Management Committee
Other settlements in the parish of Lanlivery include Redmoor, Sweetshouse, Milltown and Tangier (now a suburb of Lostwithiel). The manor of Penkneth or Penknight was one of the original 17 Antiqua maneria of the Duchy of Cornwall. At Pelyn is a 17th-century house which was formerly the seat of the family of Kendall. It was originally E-shaped but only one side survives and the centre was completely redone in the early Victorian period. The population of the village was 519 at the 2011 census.
The parish church is dedicated to St. Brevita or Bryvyth, a saint of whom nothing is known. Evidence for this dedication is found in the will of a vicar of Lanlivery dated 1539. The building was originally cruciform but was enlarged in the 15th century by the addition of a magnificent tower one hundred foot high and the south aisle. The churches of Lostwithiel and Luxulyan were originally chapelries dependent on Lanlivery. "One of the great churches of Cornwall" according to John Betjeman.
There is a holy well dedicated to St. Bryvyth in woodland just outside the village.
There are four stone crosses in the parish: Trethew Cross consists of a crosshead which was found in 1900 and a separate base; Trevorry or Sandyway Cross was found in 1936; Menawink Cross is a cross with a mutilated head which was found c. 1990 and erected shortly thereafter on the opposite side of the road; Crewel Cross was first reported in 1870 built into a stile. Two stone crosses from Lanlivery were removed in the 1840's and turned into monuments: one was taken to Boconnoc and one to St. Winnow.
In 1990, parishioners took part in a walk from Padstow to Fowey following the Saints' Way through Lanlivery. Irish pilgrims travelling to France used this path in the Dark Ages. The event was hugely popular in the parish.
Lanlivery Vintage Rally and Country Fair - Mid September