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There are three main settlements on the island - Higher Town, Middle Town and Lower Town - in addition to a number of scattered farms and cottages, with a total population (2011 census) of 136.
There are two quays - at Higher Town (the Higher Town Quay, used at high tide) and at Lower Town (the Hotel Quay, used at low tide). In Higher Town there is a post office.
There is a vineyard on the island.

To the north, St Martin's is joined by a tidal causeway to White Island.
Daymark

At the northeast corner of the island is a large red-and-white daymark. It was erected in 1683 by Thomas Ekins, first steward of the Godophin Family to live on the islands.
It is a rendered granite circular tower 4.8 metres (16 ft) in diameter and 6.4 metres (21 ft) high, set back to conical termination making it 11 metres (36 ft) high. The blocked arched entrance door contains an incorrect date of 1637. It was painted white until 1822 but by 1833 had been painted red, and is now painted in bands of red and white.
Despite its modernity, the daymark, alongside some prehistoric cairns, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The daymark is built on the highest point of St Martin's — and the second-highest point in the Isles of Scilly — and the islands' only Ordnance Survey triangulation station is situated by the daymark; the position and relative height mean that the Cornish mainland is clearly visible (when the weather allows) and the daymark is identifiable from the mainland too.

Praa Sands (Cornish: Poll an Wragh) - pronounced Pray Sands, is a beach and coastal village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is in the parish of Breage and lies off the main road between Helston and Penzance. Formerly serving the local mining industry, it is now mostly a tourist-oriented area.

The village is also the site of a "haunted" castle, a small "keep" building that is in private hands; Pengersick Castle is also said to be one of the most haunted buildings in the UK, and holds regular ghost-hunting activities and other similar pursuits. It was also investigated in series two of Most Haunted with Yvette Fielding and Derek Acorah.

The village is also the site of Praa Sands and district community centre, which holds events throughout the year for the local community.

Geography

Situated in a sheltered indentation within Mount's Bay, it has a long, wide sandy beach facing South, lapped by comparatively large waves for the area[citation needed]. The beach, which has shallow waters and seasonal lifeguards, attracts surfers and holidaymakers. Adjacent to the beach are traditional retail outlets serving the holidaymaker.

Praa Sands lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park.
The western side of Praa Sands beach contains Folly Rocks Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its geological aspects, including a granite porphyry. The geology is most interesting.

To the west of the village is another small beach, at Kenneggy, which is accessible from the cliff path at low tide.

The Short Sunderland plane crash

After an air battle against eight German planes in the Bay of Biscay, the Sunderland had been heavily damaged. The crew made it back 800 miles to the Cornish coast, where pilot Colin Walker managed to land and beach it at Praa Sands. The local people of Praa Sands took the crew into their houses, and gave them medical assistance. Walker received the Distinguished Service Order and several of the other crew members also received medals.
On 2 June 2013, a memorial was opened on the green at Praa Sands.

St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning "hoar rock in woodland",) is a small tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, United Kingdom. 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.[3] 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.

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.

Pre-history

There is evidence of people living in the area during the Neolithic (from circa 4000 to 2500 BCE years). The key discovery was of a leaf-shaped flint arrowhead, which was found within a shallow pit on the lower eastern slope, now part of the modern gardens. Other pieces of flint have been found, and at least two could be Mesolithic (circa 8000 to 3500 BCE).

None of the flints, so far recovered, can be positively dated to the Bronze Age (circa 2500 to 800 BCE) although any summit cairns would have most likely been destroyed when building the castle. A hoard of copper weapons, once thought to have been found on the Mount, are now thought to have been found on nearby Marazion Marsh.

History

St Michael's Mount, Cornwall, 1900
It may have been the site of a monastery in the 8th – early 11th centuries and Edward the Confessor gave it to the Norman Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. It was a priory of that abbey until the dissolution of the alien houses as a side-effect of the war in France by Henry V, when it was given to the Abbess and Convent of Syon at Isleworth, Middlesex in 1424.

Early Medieval period

The monastic buildings were built during the 12th century and in 1275 an earthquake destroyed the original Priory Church, which was rebuilt in the late 14th century, remaining in use

Sir Henry de la Pomeroy captured the Mount, on behalf of Prince John, in the reign of King Richard I

Siege of 1473-4

John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, seized and held it during a siege of twenty-three weeks against 6,000 of Edward IV's troops.
Occupation by Perkin Warbeck[edit]
Perkin Warbeck occupied the Mount in 1497. Sir Humphrey Arundell, Governor of St Michael's Mount, led the rebellion of 1549.

Earthquake

In 1755 the Lisbon earthquake caused a tsunami to strike the Cornish coast over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away. The sea rose six feet (2 m) in ten minutes at St Michael's Mount, ebbed at the same rate, and continued to rise and fall for five hours. The 19th-century French writer Arnold Boscowitz claimed that "great loss of life and property occurred upon the coasts of Cornwall."