Photo: ArildV (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of St Michael's Mount, from the shore at Marazion across to the island, up through the castle and the church and down through the gardens. Cornish tradition says the archangel Michael appeared to fishermen here in 495, which is legend; the written history begins in 1044, when Edward the Confessor granted the Mount to the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, whose monks began a priory and church in 1135. The walk crosses the cobbled causeway to the harbour of 1824, the foot of the hidden tramway and the island village, and climbs the Pilgrim Path past the Giant's Heart and the Giant's Well to the dairy of about 1876 and the gun batteries. On the summit come the North Terrace, the Chevy Chase Room, the monks' refectory, in use as a dining hall until the 1950s, the Armoury, the church of St Michael, consecrated in 1144, and the Blue Drawing Rooms, made from the priory's Lady Chapel by the St Aubyns, who owned the Mount from 1659 or 1660. It ends in the terraced garden below the castle, among three Second World War pillboxes.
17 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 13 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 8 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Causeway, Harbour, Tramway, The Island Village and the Barge House, Island Burial Ground, Pilgrim Path.
Giant's Heart, Giant's Well, Victorian Dairy, Gun batteries.
North Terrace, Chevy Chase Room, Armoury, Church of St Michael, Blue Drawing Room, Terraced garden, Second World War Pillboxes.
The island's only way in on foot, a cobbled road relaid from 2007 with original stones recovered after storms; one of them is shaped like a heart.
A small, dark, heart-shaped granite stone among the cobbles of the path, from the legend of the Mount's giant.
The monks' refectory, a dining hall in daily use until the 1950s, with fifteenth-century roof timbers and a frieze of hunting scenes.
The heart of the medieval priory at the summit, first consecrated in 1144 and largely rebuilt in the late fourteenth century.
The priory's Lady Chapel, described as new-built in 1478, turned into reception rooms by the St Aubyns.
Subtropical plants in beds across the sheltered, south-facing granite slope, with the castle rising straight above.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 17 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 17 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in St Michael's Mount — the Causeway, the Harbour, the Castle and the Church, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
17 narration points, including Causeway, Harbour, The Island Village and the Barge House, Pilgrim Path and Giant's Well. That is about 12 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 17 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.