The nearby village of Tintagel is quaint and definitely worth a quick look around if you’ve got time. Some are quite steep and I would rate the exercise level at somewhere between moderate and intense. So just bear this in mind when planning a visit! Wandering up and down the steps is also quite challenging.
#TINTAGEL CASTLE ON THE COAST OF CORNWALL FULL#
Just a quick note on safety if you’re planning to visit with young children or dogs, then the area is full of steep drops as can be expected from a ruin of this nature.
#TINTAGEL CASTLE ON THE COAST OF CORNWALL FREE#
You are free to explore the ruins, and wander the coastal paths just like Arthur may have done all those years ago. However, I was pleased to see that the management of Tintagel Castle has kept obstructions at bay as much as possible. For me, this is one of the most special parts of seeing a piece of history in person. Many of properties like this have become over commercialised to the point where you can no longer get up close and see the rivets on the rock, or imagine the hard labour of the stone mason (such as Land’s End, which I would say is probably one of the biggest tourist traps in the UK). I wasn’t sure quite what to expect when I visited the castle. Fun fact: Tintagel Castle is actually owned by the Duchy of Cornwall AKA Prince Charles ( the Queen’s Son). Today, the site is managed by English Heritage. By the 17th century, the once grand palace and its dwellings were deserted. Without knowing it, Richard gave rise to a legend which continued through the centuries. The grand palace (the remains of which you see today) were actually constructed on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century as a way of giving credibility to the Arthurian legend that Geoffrey of Monmouth had constructed. He wrote his histories in the 12th Century. His fanciful tale of the Kings of England notes that Arthur was conceived at Tintagel by Uther of Pendragon and his wife Igema. The only evidence that Arthur *may* have lived here comes from a fictional account by local historian, and fake news producer of his time, Geoffrey of Monmouth (who was based not far away along the Jurrasic Coastline). Products were exchanged and the inhabitants of Tintagel enjoyed luxuries such as Phocaean red slip (a type of pottery produced exclusively in Phocaea, an ancient city in Western Modern day Turkey). Perhaps most surprising of all though, was that even up here, on the north coast of Cornwall, cut off from the rest of mainland Europe, the import/ export business thrived during the early medieval period. Pots have been found and it’s thought that there was a rich trade between the inhabitants of the Northern Cornish coast and those of the rest of the Mediterranean.
And the settlement was perhaps inhabited as early as the Romano-British period, nearly two thousand years ago.ĭuring the early 5th and 6th Centuries, there is evidence that the coastline was inhabited. The number of buildings in the settlement that makes up Tintagel Castle once rose to over one hundred, though few remains to this day (many have been washed into the sea). The medieval settlement of Tintagel and trade in the ‘ dark ages‘ Trying to get by, work for a living and provide for their loved ones. To wonder how people could have ever lived such perilous lives atop the cliff, and of course to realize that the majority of these people were just like you and I. And a forest in Brittany claims to be home to magical Merlin.Īrthur or not, the real reason you visit Tintagel Castle is to marvel at the thousand-year-old architecture. After all, Winchester claims to house the round table Arthur sat at. Look anywhere in Celtic Europe and you’ll find tales of knights, mighty Arthur, and that famed round table. It is here he wandered with Gwynevere and from which he ruled his kingdom. It is in this Cornish castle, far from civilization and on the very boundaries of human endurance that Arthur allegedly commanded his knights. Tintagel is alleged to be the legendary seat of King Arthur. Tintagel Castle and the Legend of King Arthur The medieval settlement of Tintagel and trade in the ‘dark ages‘.Tintagel Castle and the Legend of King Arthur.
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