St Michael’s Mount

St Michael's Mount is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, this peculiar lump of land has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age, and some archaeologists believe it may be the island of Ictis, where ancient Greeks and Romans came to trade for copper and tin.

Rising up in the middle of Mount’s Bay, the island Abbey of St Michael’s Mount looks like it’s been picked up out of a fairy tale and plonked on the horizon opposite Penzance. This Mount is dedicated to the archangel St Michael, who is said to have appeared here in AD 495.

When the Normans conquered England in 1066, they were struck by the island’s resemblance to their own Mont-St-Michael, whose Benedictine monks were then invited to build an abbey here.

There’s been a chapel on the Mount since at least the 5^th century, but it’s the island’s medieval castle and priory , built between the 12^th and 14^th centuries, that draws all eyes: the ancestral seat of St Aubyn Family.

In 1659, the mount was bought by Colonel John St Aubyn, whose descendants turned the fortress into a magnificent house, it’s stuffed with grand rooms and priceless antiques, and encircled by gorgeous subtropical gardens.

But the best bit of all about the Mount is getting there: at low tide, you can cross over the island via the cobbled causeway, just as pilgrims have done for the last thousand-odd years.

The causeway to St Michael’s Mount runs from the nearby village of Marazion, where you can also take a ferry.

If you are in luck, low tide might coincide with sunset, to magical effect.