This April I will travel to Cornwall with a small group tour. One of the planned activities is a visit to St. Michael's Mount. I'd like to visit the castle, but I'm told that the ascent is steep with uneven terrain, and takes 20 - 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I have arthritic knees and lower back pain. I will bring my walking poles with me, and if I can take things at a slow pace I may be able to do it, but it helps if I can sit and rest for a couple of minutes every so often. Has anyone here visited there and can tell me if there are any benches or places to sit on the way up? Thanks for any info.

Yes there are places to stop along the way. However the steps and parts of the path are quite uneven and even with walking poles they could be difficult. Its been several years since I walked out there but trying to envision doing it with mobility issues and a cane/walking sticks it seems a daunting trek.

It is definitely not 'mobility friendly'

I've been looking for a tour like that. May I know the name of the company?

Two small group tour companies that have a Cornwall tour are European Experiences (based in America, I enjoyed a tour in the Cotswolds with them) and Martin Randall, based in the UK. I think BackRoads have one too, which may be cheaper.

Meant to add - JUST the walk out across the (fairly easy) causeway takes close to 15 minutes - so 30 mins round trip. Visiting the gardens/castle etc would take much longer. easily 3 or 4 hours.

I'm going with European Experiences, which specializes in small group tours - there will be 14 on this trip. It's a 10 day trip - we'll be mostly based in Penzance, taking day trips from there, but we'll also spend 3 days/2 nights in the Isles of Scilly. My friend that I'm traveling with has gone on a tour with them in France, and says they do a wonderful job. I'm really looking forward to it.

We'll be taking a boat out to the island, as the tides will be too high the day we'll visit to walk out.

There are lots of youtube videos about visiting the Mount -- maybe look at a few to see if you think you can manage the rocky paths/stairs.