Discover the roots of the legend of King Arthur in Tintagel

Tintagel Castle is a place beautifully preserved by English Heritage.

Discovering Tintagel history

The famous Tintagel Castle, located in Cornwall England, is an almost inexistent ruin. However, the foundations of the buildings are still present. They allow us to imagine how this place used to look like back in the 12th century. Despite its lower quality of material goods, this site was impressive thanks to its connection to the well-known Arthurian legend. Indeed, this is the first place where the name of Arthur Pendragon appears. For this reason, we think as a possibility that it was the birthplace of the legendary king. It was also where his mother, Ygraine of Tintagel once lived. Overall, the place offers a magnificent view of the sea. The castle is on a rock that is on the coast so be careful! There is also a strong and cold wind that could sweep you off your feet. 

Arriving at the castle

The place is composed of two different sections; the first and smallest one actually is on the mainland. This part contains the Gatehouse and the courtyard. At the time, people were entering this place using a wooden bridge to reach the island-rock. The original bridge fell into the sea around the year 1540. Today we can access the second part, which contains the rest of the castle, by a small wooden bridge built recently. From the remains of the original structure, we can conclude that the castle primarily use was not military. The fortifications were light in comparison to other places like Windsor castle. The existing wall was for security purpose, like stopping bandit forays or peasant’s rebellions.

The castle courtyard

When you cross the small wooden bridge, you discover the Castle's courtyard; where the owners of Tintagel Castle once lived. Despite the disappearance of most of the structure, what’s left lets us see how small this site was at the time. We can imagine two possible explanations: either the owners of this place were poor lords, or no one merely bothered with building a huge fort. To this day, the two main walls partly surround the castle.The first one is still existing and is covering the left and back flanks of the court. It stops at the edge of the rock. The second one was the first part of the place to fall into the sea, closely followed by the right wall of the Gateway. The original structure followed the same fate in 1337. But they rebuilt all of it three years later. The second structure did not survive to our days, most likely due to erosion, because the area lacked exposure to Vikings attacks. These barbarians were more frequently “visiting” the western coasts of England. 

Remaining of the dark age

Further back on the rock, we can see some remains of the dark age also called the “pre-middle-age.” These houses were more likely merchants’ houses or even warehouses. We can suppose this because we found a vast amount of pottery fragments in the area, but no potters’ wheel nor tools. Just like the rest of the fortress, there is almost nothing left of these houses. What remains are the foundation stones as the rest was of wood and stubble, material that are vulnerable to time damages.

tintagel

The houses are situated close to the main building in order to facilitate the transport and the storage of the goods. Another possible reason for the location of the houses was that there was no exposure to the strong cold wind of the sea that was always blowing over the small rock.

Some other buildings from the same era were also found on the top of the rock and were exposed to the heavy winds. In result of this, the ruins of these houses are now barely higher than the grass level. Naturally, middle age'ss ruins contain a church not very far away. Unlike most of the other remains of the dark-age, the church survived quite well because people used stones to build it. It is another evidence of the fact that rocks were not part of the other building's walls. However, its exposure to the coast winds destroyed a large part of it (the church). 

Merlin’s cave

If there is one thing that you should see, it is Merlin’s cave. You can find the cave in a small cove at the bottom of the rock and the cliff. Natural elements were probably the diggers here (erosion)! The cave turned into a tunnel. However, this doesn’t change the original name. The name came from the famous sequence of 12 poems named the Idylls of the King by Tennyson. These poems are stating that the famous warlock "pluck from the sea the infant" that will later become the legendary King Arthur Pendragon. 

Another view of the visit

I didn’t cover everything that was present around the Tintagel Castle, but I did include what I judged to be the most exciting part of the visit regarding history. This place is recommended for people who are interested in history and ancient ruins but also to anyone who enjoys fantastic landscapes and sceneries. The cliff provides an incredible point of view over the ocean.