The Giant of St Michaels Mount

St Michael's Mount is an island that is only accessible from the mainland at Marazion via a causeway, for a couple of hours either side of low tide.


Legend says that the mount was originally built by a giant named Cormoran. This giant lived on the Mount, and he used to wade ashore and steal cows and sheep from the villagers to feed his gargantuan appetite. 

One night, a local boy called Jack rowed out to the island and dug a deep pit while the giant was asleep. As the sun rose, Jack blew a horn to wake the angry giant who staggered down from the summit and blinded by the sunlight fell into the pit and died. 

Today St Michael's Mount is run by the National Trust and attracts a myriad of visitors. If you are down here on holiday it is well worth a visit.

However I was here in search of the giants that still inhabit the Mount, or rather the rockpools that are exposed at low tide. Rather than employing the traditional rockpooling outfit of a net and bucket, I was armed with rod and line. 

Rather self consciously I wandered off to the left of the causeway towards the furthest rockpools. Luckily the tourists continued crossing the causeway and ignored the idiot who was perched on the rocks like a giant garden gnome fishing a tiny garden pond.



The giant's live in the crevices and gaps between and under the larger rocks within the rockpools. 

As I lowered my ragworm section next to a likely boulder, a giant came out from under the rock as quick as a flash, inhaled the worm and returned to its lair.

The giant of St Michael's Mount was finally revealed as a giant goby