Visit the Mount and pick up a copy of our guide book to find out more about the key events through the passage of time.
From around 350 B.C. – The Mount was a key port for the trading of tin to the rest of Europe
495 A.D. – A vision of the Archangel of St Michael appeared on the Mount
Around 1070 – The Mount was granted to the Benedictine monks of Mont St Michel in France
1135 – The first stone church was built on the Mount by the French Abbot, Bernard le Bec, and later consecrated by Robert, Bishop of Exeter, in 1144
1193 – The Mount was seized by Henry de La Pomeray (on behalf of the Earl of Cornwall – later King John)
1385 – Richard Auncell of Tavistock installed as first English prior
1424 – King Henry VI granted the Mount in the trust of Syon Abbey
1473 – Mount seized by Earl of Oxford
1497 – Perkin Warbeck’s rebellion. He leaves his wife at the Mount for her safety.
1535 – Start of the dissolution of monasteries. The Mount clergy was finally pensioned off in 1548
1549 – Mount seized by Cornish rebels as part of the Prayer Book Rebellion
1588 – Mount beacon lit to warn of the arrival of the Spanish Armada
1599 – Mount sold by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Robert Cecil (later the Earl of Salisbury)
1640 – Mount sold to Sir Francis Bassett
1642 – Mount defended during the Civil War (until 1646)
1647 – Colonel John St Aubyn nominated to be Captain of the Mount
1659 – Colonel St Aubyn purchased the Mount, which then became a private home
1727 – Sir John Aubyn, the third Baronet, rebuilt the harbour
Around 1750 – Ruined Lady Chapel converted into two drawing rooms
1873-1878 – Victorian Wing of the castle built (where the family live now)
1954 – Gift of St Michael’s Mount with large endowment fund to the National Trust
