Saint Michael in the Catholic Church him and the construction of Churches and monasteries at specific locations. Because most monastic islands lie close to land, they were viewed as forts holding demons at a distance against attacks on the Church. Monasteries such as Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, France and Skellig Michael, off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, dedicated to the Archangel are examples of these. Another notable structure is that of St Michael's Mount, located in Mounts Bay, near Penzance, Cornwall - a stunning island castle that resembles Mont Saint-Michel, and can only be reached on foot at low tide. St. Bernard
St Michael's Mount land being inundated by the sea. One of the earliest references to the mount (originally named "Dynsol" or "Dinsul"), was in the mid 11th century when it was "Sanctus Michael beside the sea". In the 1600s John Milton used the Mount as the setting for the finale of what was once one of the most famous poems in English literature, his "Lycidas", which drew on the traditional sea-lore that had it that the archangel Michael sat in a great stone chair at the top of the Mount, seeing far over the sea and thus protecting England. In the mid 1850s