St Michael's Mount replacing the pack horses which had previously been used. Its steep gradient renders it unsafe for passenger-use, thus The National Trust has made it out-of-bounds for public access. The causeway between the mount and Marazion was improved in 1879 by raising it by with sand and stones from the surrounding area. Repairs were completed in March 2016 following damage from the 2014 winter storms. Some studies indicate that any rise in ocean waters as well as existing natural erosion would put some of the Cornwall coast at risk, including St. Michael's Mount. Until recent times both the mount and the
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