Cycle Route Land’s End to John o’Groats

Land's End is the most Southwesterly point in Britain and part of Cornwall in the South West. It is not a town or village but rather a former small holding which now has an Visitor Complex with a Hotel, Visitor attractions and is well known for being the starting/ending point for the Land's End to John o'Groats journey.

Land's End's main represents both the starting and ending points of the longest journey in Great Britain, Land's End to John O'Groats. Consequently, it is known as "The First and Last", due to its position at the extremity of the UK. It is an atmospheric, dramatic piece of coastline steeped in history and romance.

See

• There is a Complex of Attractions on the site. A professional photographer takes photos of you in front of the signpost showing your hometown's distance (see photo above). He will charge you around £10 for the photos. There is a fence around the signpost, but you can, and many people do, just take their own photos standing in front of the fence.
• Walk East along the coast to the first promontory. The sea arch is visible along with the extraordinary rock formations in this area (weathered Granite). The coast path continues on to Porthgwarra past various coves, many caves, another sea arch and possibly some of the most dramatic coastline in the entire UK. An extended walk will reach Porthcurno where there is a bus service.

St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning "hoar rock in woodland") is a small tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water. The population of this parish in 2011 was 35. It is managed by the National Trust, and the castle and chapel have been the home of the St Aubyn family since approximately 1650. The earliest buildings, on the summit, date to the 12th century.

Its Cornish language name – literally, "the grey rock in a wood" – may represent a folk memory of a time before Mount's Bay was flooded, indicating a description of the mount set in woodland. Remains of trees have been seen at low tides following storms on the beach at Perranuthnoe . Radiocarbon dating established the submerging of the hazel wood at about 1700 BC.

Historically, St Michael's Mount was a Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (with which it shares the same tidal island characteristics and the same conical shape, in spite of being much smaller), when it was given to the Benedictine religious order of Mont Saint-Michel by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.

St Michael's Mount is one of forty-three (unbridged) tidal islands that one can walk to from mainland Britain. Part of the island was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1995 for its geology.

The island today

The chapel of St Michael, a fifteenth-century building, has an embattled tower, one angle of which is a small turret, which served for the guidance of ships. The chapel is extra-diocesan and continues to serve the Order of St John by permission of Lord St Levan. Chapel Rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to worship before ascending the mount. Many antiquities, comprising plate armour, paintings and furniture, are preserved at the castle. Several houses are built on the hillside facing Marazion, and a spring provides a natural flow of water. There is a row of eight houses at the back of the present village; built in 1885 they are known as Elizabeth Terrace. Some of the houses are occupied by staff working in the castle and elsewhere on the island. The mount's cemetery (currently no public access) contains the graves of former residents of the island and several drowned sailors. There are also buildings that were formerly the steward's house, a changing-room for bathers, the stables, the laundry, a barge house, a sail loft (now a restaurant), and two former inns. A former bowling green adjoins one of the buildings.

The harbour, enlarged in 1823 to accommodate vessels of up to 500 tonnes deadweight, has a pier dating back to the 15th century which has also been renovated. Queen Victoria disembarked from the royal yacht at St Michael's Mount in 1846, and a brass inlay of her footstep can be seen at the top of the landing stage. King Edward VII's footstep is also visible near the bowling green. In 1967 the Queen Mother entered the harbour in a pinnace from the royal yacht Britannia.

Another noteworthy point of interest on the island is its underground railway, which is still used to transport goods from the harbour up to the castle. It was built by miners around 1900, replacing the pack horses which had previously been used. Its steep gradient renders it unsafe for passenger-use, thus The National Trust has made it out-of-bounds for public access.

The causeway between the mount and Marazion was improved in 1879 by raising it by one foot (30 cm) with sand and stones from the surrounding area. Repairs were completed in March 2016 following damage from the 2014 winter storms. Some studies indicate that any rise in ocean waters as well as existing natural erosion would put some of the Cornwall coast at risk, including St. Michael's Mount.

The garden is open Sunday - Friday (10:30-17:00).

The garden is open 17 April – 30 June, Monday - Friday (10:30-17:00), 6 July – 1 September, Thursday & Friday (10:30-17:30) & 7 - 29 September, Thursday and Friday (10:30-17:00).

April

• Monday to Saturday: 10am - 3pm
• Sunday: Closed

May

• Monday to Saturday: 10am - 4pm
• Sunday: 10am - 3pm

June

• Monday to Sunday: 10am - 4pm

July to September

• Monday to Sunday: 10am- 5pm