CORNWALL: Marazion & St Michael's Mount

Date:		17th. August 2009
County:		CORNWALL
Location:		Marazion, St. Michael's Mount
Type:		Scenic Area (Coast), Historical Building
Sub-Type:		Island, Harbour
Viewed by:		WALK or WALK from boat
Car Park:		Pay and display (hourly.) Boat £2.00 (adults.)
Difficulty:		Walk flat near harbour. Short but steep walk to castle.
Distance:
Season:		Summer
Weather:
Time Of Day:		Early to Late Afternoon
Camera:		Casio Exilim EX-Z850 Pocket Zoom (JPG)
Scene Rating:		•••••
Links:		St Michael's Mount site, National Trust page

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The little crag of an island known as St. Michael's Mount has become an icon of West Cornwall and pretty photographs of it feature in most Cornish tourist literature. Actually it is only an island at high tide, when it is accessible only by boat (£2.00 adults, £1.00 kids) from the Marazion slipway. At low tide you can walk across on a 350m stone causeway from Marazion village. If the water is lapping the edges make sure the tide is going OUT before you walk!

The island, topped by a dramatically-placed castle and church is visible from Penzance, across Mount's Bay. But at 2-and-a-half kilometers the shot is rather too long. Better shots are from near the Marazion end of the causeway with a wide lens featuring the ribbon-like path (at low tide) or dark rocks (at mid-tide) in the foreground.

Marazion [town centre: TR17 0AR] claims to be "one of the oldest chartered towns in the UK. The first charter of incorporation was granted by Henry III in 1257." The full detail can be found on the Marazion website. The antiquity of the village isn't as obvious as in many Cornish seaside towns, but it's pleasant enough and worth a little walk to see the stone buildings that are (as in the St Michael's Mount harbour village) often decked with flowers.

However, it'll be for the long sandy beach and St Michael's mount that most people come here.

There are a number of car-parks in Marazion. The biggest is the Folly Field car park and that's where we parked [satnav TR17 0EN should get you near it.]. It's on the right on the way into town, by the beach. We're told, however, that the cheapest is the so-called "charity" car park (£3.00) which is further back towards Penzance on the other side. There's also supposed to be one by the slipway, although it's small and you will probably have trouble getting into it during high season. None seem to have hourly fees and none are owned by the National Trust, so members still have to pay. Pay attention to when they close if you expecting to take an evening meal in town...

If you want hourly pay and display or have a Cornwall Council weekly rover ticket then you will have to use the Marazion station car park, which is more than half a kilometer beyond the others, out of town. One sweetener for that car park, however, is that it's opposite the small but important Marazion Marsh wetland reserve [TR17 0AA] run by the RSPB. Cornwall is not well provided with this kind of environment for native and migratory birds and although it is bracketed by railway and highways it still provides Cornwall largest reedbed habitat and, for the patient visitor, may provide a glimpse of the shy and increasingly rare bittern, during the winter.

Car park locations can be found on the Marazion town site or on our own map (below.)