St Michael’s Mount has been a Christian holy place since the 5th century when Saint Michael is said to have appeared there to local fisherman. During the Middle Ages it functioned as both a religious retreat and a military garrison. The castle – with its asymmetrical entrance front, crenellations, buttresses and small oriel – dates from the 14th century, but it has had many subsequent additions. In 1659 the Parliamentarian Colonel John St Aubyn bought the Mount, and over the next three generations his family converted the fort and church buildings into a family home. The interior is a rich mixture of styles, with late medieval timber roofing, a 17th-century frieze of hunting scenes and splendid Rococo Gothick plasterwork in the Blue Drawing Room.