island-topped abbey

[SuprunP]

St Michael's Mount
Looming up from the sea near the historic town of Penzance, the unmistakeable silhouette of St Michael's Mount is one of Cornwall's most iconic landmarks: a 12th-century abbey set on a craggy island connected to the mainland by a cobbled causeway covered at high tide. Highlights include the original armoury, the priory church and the abbey's subtropical gardens, which teeter dramatically above the waters.
[...]
Iconic landmarks
St Michael's Mount -- Cornwall's unique island-topped abbey, star of a thousand local postcards.
(Discover Great Britain)

Isn't it rather 'Cornwall's unique abbey-topped island'?

topped
having a top of a specified character — usually used in combination

flat-topped

Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language

Thanks.

 

[Copyright]

This is pretty choppy quotation ... could you give us complete sentences, up to four, so we can tell what's going on?

 

[SuprunP]

This is pretty choppy quotation ... could you give us complete sentences, up to four, so we can tell what's going on?

Corrected.

 

[Copyright]

Isn't it rather 'Cornwall's unique abbey-topped island'?

You would think so, but this construction is used a lot in cooking and I imagine the reference is intended to have the same visual appeal. A quick search of *-topped produced these:

Potato-Topped Mini Meatloaves
Chocolate-Topped Crispy Bars
Meringue-Topped Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe
Pecan-Topped Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Coconut-Topped Cupcakes

And, of course, a cherry-topped sundae.

 

[Keith Bradford]

I'd hate to think of an island-topped abbey . Instant destruction of ancient monument by superposition of several million tons of rock!!

The author got his typing in a muddle, and his editor hasn't spotted it. I've not found the correct phrase in relation to St Michael's Mount, but Mont-Saint-Michel and Lindisfarne have been described as:

...among France's finest landmarks: Mont-Saint-Michel, the off-shore, abbey-topped island that sits in the Bay of Saint-Malo.
...The abbey-topped island connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway ...

It is of course possible that the author meant to say "island-top abbey", which is a phrase used of Mont St.Michel:

This A.D. 708 island-top abbey is surrounded by quicksand tidal flats on the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

Anyway, the phrase used in the OP is just wrong.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

I agree with Keith. The concept of an island-topped abbey is hilarious, as would be Copyright's meatloaf-topped mini potatoes.

 

[Copyright]

I see that I was in the middle of two answers in post 4 when I was interrupted. My intention was to agree with SuprunP's "abbey-topped island" and offer examples in support of it. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[SuprunP]

Thank you all!