Photo: Rob Vince

These notes, like the chapter they refer to, start with an image of St Michael’s Mount off the coast of Cornwall, near Marazion just outside Penzance.

Geologically, the Mount - as it’s known by the locals - is an almost circular outcrop of granite, similar in kind to those found on Dartmoor and the nearby granites of Carnmenellis and Penwith. In The Unstoppable Tide it is a perfect example of the most recent forces that have formed our landscape; the tides that wash over its causeway twice a day are a phenomenon so recent that an old Cornish name for the Mount seems to commemorate a time when there was woodland in the bay - evidence for which can be seen at low tide at Ponsandane (on the eastern side of Penzance). See map below for approximate location.


View The Unstoppable Tide in a larger map