St Michael’s Mount

Client: National Trust and St Aubyn Estates

St Michael’s Mount occupies a spectacular position on a granite outcrop in Mounts Bay, near Penzance. It contains evidence of prehistoric settlement, and was the site of a famous monastery and castle in the medieval period. Later, it was a private house and fortress as well as a major port; there are significant remains of fortifications from the Civil War, Napoleonic period and Second World War, and late 17th century harbour walls. The village by the harbour has a mixture of Georgian and Victorian buildings, while the St Aubyn family’s house at the summit was converted from the old monastery with additions in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Today the island is run jointly by by the family and the National Trust. It contains a number of scheduled monuments and listed buildings and is an extremely popular visitor attraction.

Our current work involves the compilation of a comprehensive Gazetteer detailing the history, significance and condition of all structures and other elements on the island, and setting out proposals for their future maintenance. This information will augment the existing Quinquennial Survey and historic research, and feed into the discussions with users and stakeholders over how best to manage the site and visitors in future. At St Michael’s Mount, as on several other projects, we are working closely with MRDA Architects to ensure our final reports are seamlessly integrated for ease of use.

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