St Michael's Mount

In 1050 Edward the Confessor made a gift of St Michael's Mount (6mi/10km west of Godolphin House) to the Benedictine monks of Mont St Michel in Normandy, who thereby acquired a sister monastery on the 230ft/70m-high granite rock. In 1425 the monastery reverted to the Crown, being transformed into a fortress for the defense of the bay. After the Civil War it came into the possession of the St Aubyn family, in whose hands it remained until taken over by the National Trust in 1954. Generally speaking the setting of St Michael's Mount is more attractive than its buildings.