Marazion is a small town on Mount's Bay, 2 miles east of Penzance, and it lives across the water from St Michael's Mount. In Kernewek it is Marghasyow, Thursday market, a name that records the town's origin exactly: a charter of the late eleventh century gave the Mount its Thursday market, and the market was held on the mainland, where the town grew up around it.
The Mount
Half a mile offshore, St Michael's Mount is reached on foot by the causeway at low water and by passenger boat when the tide is in, which gives the town its daily rhythm. West of Marazion, the marsh is an RSPB reserve and a site of special scientific interest, a stopping point on the coast for birds and birdwatchers alike.
Charters and raids
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, granted a market charter in 1257, and Elizabeth I granted the charter of incorporation in 1595. The town was plundered by the French in 1513 and by Cornish rebels in 1549, and it survived both the way harbour towns tend to. The railway came on 11 March 1852 and went in 1964, and HMS Warspite was beached and broken up here in 1947, a strange last anchorage for a battleship.
Sources
Last checked: 2026-10-11