St Michael's Mount

St Michael's Mount rises out of Mount's Bay off the south coast of Cornwall as a steep granite island crowned by a castle and chapel, joined to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite setts that the sea covers twice a day. Walking out at low tide over the wet stones, with the tower growing larger ahead and water on either side, is a large part of the magic; when the tide is in, small boats carry people across instead. Seen from the shore at dusk, the silhouette of the rock and its buildings is one of the great sights of the Cornish coast.

The Cornish name, Karrek Loos yn Koos, means "the grey rock in a wood", and may preserve a memory of the forest that once covered the bay before the sea rose over it, roughly around 1700 BC. Local tradition holds that in 495 fishermen saw the Archangel Michael standing on a ledge of the rock, and from the 12th century the island was a Benedictine priory linked to Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, its twin across the Channel. Another legend makes it the home of the giant Cormoran, slain by a Cornish boy named Jack – the origin of the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. The Mount was also a fortress: in 1473 the Lancastrian Earl of Oxford seized it and held out against Edward IV's forces for some five months.

In 1659 Colonel John St Aubyn bought the island, and his descendants, later the Lords St Levan, have lived in the castle ever since, gradually turning the monastic buildings into a family home. In 1954 the family gave most of the Mount to the National Trust while keeping a very long lease on the castle. Around the medieval church at the summit, gardens have been built on terraces cut into the granite on the sheltered side of the rock, where the warmth stored by the stone and the mild climate let exotic succulents and plants from far warmer countries flourish above the sea. At the foot of the rock is a small harbour and a village, which grew into a busy seaport after the harbour was improved in 1727.

Getting there

The causeway starts in Marazion, about 4 km east of Penzance, the nearest town and the terminus of the Cornish main line, with trains from London Paddington. The nearest airport is Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY), about 50 km away. Access on foot depends on the tide, with boats running when the causeway is under water.