St. Michael's Mount Chapel
St Michael's Mount is a small tidal island in Mount's Bay,
Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is
linked to the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite
setts, passable between mid-tide and low water. The population of this
parish in 2011 was 35. It is managed by the National Trust, and the
castle and chapel have been the home of the St Aubyn family since
approximately 1650. The earliest buildings, on the summit, date to the
12th century.
The chapel of St Michael, a fifteenth-century building, has an
embattled tower, one angle of which is a small turret, which served
for the guidance of ships. The chapel is extra-diocesan and
continues to serve the Order of St John by permission of Lord St
Levan. Chapel Rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to worship before ascending
the mount. Many antiquities, comprising plate armour, paintings and
furniture, are preserved at the castle. Several houses are built on
the hillside facing Marazion, and a spring provides a natural flow
of water.
Photo 50, 1979