A fairy-tale island

The magic that is St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, UK

I was going to introduce you to more of Cornwall's magic in the last post, but was sidetracked by talking about Netgalley. This post, however, is to be dedicated to the Mount, the backdrop for the third in The Camelot Inheritance series.

I love this place and could visit it many times over... in fact I think I will be popping down there again very soon, West Cornwall has a personality all of its own; quite beautiful and, at times, mysterious.

The Mount is situated off Cornwall's north coast towards the very tip of the county and Britain.

Mounts Bay, home to St Michael's Mount

Zoom out and you can see where Cornwall lies in relation to the rest of Britain.

Cornwall is right at the bottom of the map.

And now the island as seen from the shore.

St Michael's Mount, Cornwall. 

At low tide it can be reached on foot over a stone causeway but at high tide it can only be reached by boat.

At the foot of the island there are cottages where the folk who help run the castle, and island, live.

From here you have to walk up another stone path which climbs steeply up the hill towards the castle.

You can see just how steep it is!

Um... sorry about the thumb!

Dramatic eh? The castle has been in use for hundreds of years, although not always in this form, it was originally used by monks. Now it has some very comfortable touches but the canons hint at a much more troubled past.

On one side of the island they face inland and on the other they face out to sea. To reach the castle's entrance you have to scramble up some more steps and finally enter the castle through this beautiful arched door.

And once you're through the door, you enter a hallway festooned with swords and weapons linked with the castle's past. They're magnificent...

At one end of the room, the family's crest decorates a wall. The dark bird at the top of the design is the Cornish Chough - pronounced 'chuff' - which is also Cornwall's emblem.

So I've taken you through the front door and into the very first of the rooms, but I'll save the rest of the castle's interior for a later post.

If you want to know anything about visiting the island, you can follow this link: http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/

In a couple of weeks I'll be featuring another interview with a fellow author, until then folks thanks for stopping by and please drop in again. x