A visit to Tintagel

Cornwall has been our favourite UK holiday destination for many years now.  This is a record of a spring visit that we made during 2006 to the ruined castle at Tintagel.  Whilst controversy surrounds the myths, Tintagel is still considered by many to be the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur.

First there's a short walk down a steep road from the village to the visitors centre on the coast.

 

The castle itself is in two halves, half on what's nearly a separate island (there's a narrow and rapidly crumbling bit of land connecting it to the mainland) and half on a steep cliff of the mainland, facing the island.  This wooden bridge crosses the gap onto the island. You can see in the second picture the old path it replaces which has now fallen into the sea.

First we climbed up onto the island and looked around there.

The picture at top right is worth a second look.  The small peninsular is referred to locally as The Dragon, with it's apparent head looking out to sea, and protrusions on both sides resembling legs/claws.  According to Cornish myth & legend it is the petrified remains of a long-slain monster!

 

There was a tunnel which we walked through on the island section. Little is known of it's original purpose, but it's believed to have been used as a primitive cold-store.

 

We climbed the very steep steps onto the mainland bit of the castle.  In the center picture, the three grassed-over "humps" are clearly out of line with the rest of the walls, and are believed to be the remains of buildings that pre-date the 13th century castle.

 

There's a cave under the island, which you can see right through.  It's become known as "Merlin's Cave" - although there's clearly some doubt about that story.  At low tide you can walk right through it, but when we arrived the tide was rising and the last part was already under water.

Tintagel village:  On the right is the old post office, now preserved by English Heritage.