Vital conservation work to protect the causeway at St Michael’s Mount, which provides vehicular and pedestrian access for the island’s inhabitants and visitors, started on 29 September 2008.
The causeway has always been the subject of regular maintenance. Recent work to introduce a firm concrete base, with steel reinforcement on the branch leading to the Chapel Rock landing stage, has proved to be very successful and this renewal will now be undertaken along the entire causeway. The work, which will be carried out by a team of National Trust specialists, will take place every autumn and spring over the next three years in the short periods when the causeway is exposed at low tide.
Rob Abernethy, Sub Agent for the National Trust and the Chief Executive for the St Aubyn Family says:
'The causeway was built in the nineteenth century from stones gathered from the foreshore and recent research has shown that it was only constructed on sand and shale. This explains why it’s so susceptible to the action of the sea and why it’s vital that we act now to protect it in the long term.'
'The causeway running across the sands from Marazion is an essential link for visitors and for the community who live on the island. The work, which will involve the removal and replacement of the sets or cobbles, has been planned to cause as little disruption as possible. The result will be a much stronger causeway, but one which will look exactly as it does now.'
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