Tidal island crowned by a castle and church.
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
The granite causeway from Marazion is only walkable at low tide; boats cross instead once the water covers it, and the Mount’s own advice is to check the causeway’s daily opening times before you set out, because the sea comes in quickly. At the top, the castle’s earliest parts date to the 12th century, when the site was a priory belonging to the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. The priory closed in the early 1400s, when Henry V shut down England’s monasteries with ties to France, and the chapel built on the site afterwards still stands, with a squat medieval tower. The St Aubyn family have owned the Mount for centuries; in 1954 they gave most of it to the National Trust, but kept a 999-year lease and still live in the castle. Around 30 people live in the small harbour village below, among terraced gardens that run down the south-facing rock to the sea. Penzance is a couple of miles west, on the other side of Mount’s Bay.
