Mount's Bay

Probably the best known landmark in Cornwall is St Michael’s Mount which in the Cornish language is called ’The grey rock in the wood’. To anyone looking at it today, surrounded by land and sea, this may seem a strange title. However, we are told that at times of very low water the remains of old trees can still be seen in the sands and it probably was, therefore, surrounded by a forest some long time before the birth of Christ. It would be strange indeed if such a place had not been the home of a saint, hermit, or other religious person in the very early days of Cornish history since they abounded in the Cornish headlands.

Although there is not definite evidence that there was a religious building on this site in the early days, the ‘Domesday Book’ does record that in the time of Edward the Confessor it was held by a priest. It is in 1135, however, that the first real evidence of the residence of the Mount begins and there can be no doubt that it was then a Benedictine Priory. As well as being a religious house, the Mount was also a fortress whose defendable capabilities were recognised by the fierce knights and warriors of the Middle Ages. During the Civil War it was held by the Royalists initially and finally fell to the Parliamentary soldiers under the command of Colonel Hammond.

In 1659 it passed into the hands of the St Aubyn family which has lived there ever since. The family was granted a peerage in 1887, the title being Lord St Levan. In 1954 the third Lord St Levan gave the Mount to the National Trust, but the family still do live there. Because the property has been handed to the National Trust there has not been the requirement to indulge in quite such a degree of commercialisation which other homes have found necessary in order to maintain the cost of upkeep.

The whole history of the actual building of the castle on this inhospitable rock is one of man’s struggle against the elements, but one of the most ingenious of its features is undoubtedly the railway which was constructed in about 1900. This railway, which is used for taking supplies up to the castle itself, starts at the Harbour wall and for the final 120 feet to the summit, is climbing at a gradient of 1 in 1.75. The final section was actually blasted through solid granite. Obviously no conventional railway engine could deal with gradients as steep as this and it is, in fact, a cable railway which has a single four wheeled wagon pulled by cable.

The interior of the castle has many notable features and in particular you should make sure you visit the Blue Drawing Rooms which were created in the 1750s from the ruined chapel. This season sees several new displays in the castle, including the weapons and miniature portrait collection.

The massive southeast wing of the Mount was designed in 1873 by one of the family of the 5th Baronet and took five years to build. The living rooms are on the top floor with bedrooms beneath. The work, carried out using local granite, provided much needed employment for local men suffering as a result of the collapse of the Cornish mining industry.

It is difficult to say from which point you will get the best view of the Mount since so much depends on time of day and the weather. Probably the only fair comment is that from whatever angle the Mount is seen, it cannot help but amaze and delight you. Whether you choose to arrive at the Mount across the Causeway or take one of the motor boats from Marazion this will be one of the high spots of your Cornish holiday. Obviously your means of approach will depend on the time of your arrival and the state of the tides, but it is worth trying to arrange your visit so that at least one way is done by ferry - we always feel this lends more excitement to the visit.

St Michael's Mount

This area of the coast is undoubtedly dominated by The Mount itself, but if you look across to the west, beyond the busy town of Penzance, you will see the village of Newlyn famous in the past for both artists and fishing. The Newlyn school of painting was at its peak in the 1920s and brought a more realistic picture of the coast with its fantastic effects of light and shade and its farm girls and fishermen. At one time there were up to two hundred fishing boats setting sail in the evening to cast their drift nets for the pilchard shoals.