Tintagel Castle

Have you heard of the legend of King Arthur?  Well today we visited Tintagel where the legend says that King Arthur was born.
We drove to the village of Tintagel which is only a short drive from our house and walked to the cliffs where Tintagel Castle was built. Now there are just ruins of the castle.

In the 5^th and 6^th centuries AD after the collapse of the Roman rule, there was a large high-status settlement here on the headlands with over 100 buildings. These may have being houses workshops or storage rooms, all protected by the sea and deep defensive ditch. It was probably the seasonal home of a regional king, leader of a powerful kingdom called Dumnonia which stretched across Cornwall and Devon and into Somerset. This important royal settlement may have inspired the legendary stories associated with this place.

After being abandoned for 600 years the headland and manor of Tintagel were brought in May 1233

By Richard Earl of Cornwall who was younger brother of king henry III.

Earl Richard chose to build his castle on the remote coastal headland because of its associations with king Arthur. The headland got cut off in about 1400 and now there is a bridge to get across to it.

There was a cave down on the beach that we walked into that is said to be Merlins magic cave. A stream comes down the valley and it turns into a waterfall onto the beach. The tunnel is 300ft long and runs under the castle.

Merlin was the wizard who put sword in the stone and said that whoever drew it out would be King. Only Arthur was able to pull it out and Merlin had him crowned King.  Arthur married Queen Guinevere and was given the Round Table.  While Arthur was King there was a wonderful age of peace and chivalry but when Arthur had to go to Europe, his son Mordred rebelled and took the crown for himself.

King Arthur died during a battle with his son Mordred and before he died he asked Sir Bedevere to return his sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. The legend says that Arthur was taken to Avaolon to be healed and one day to return.

On the headland there was a tunnel dug into the ground.  We could walk through it but nobody knows what it was used for.  

There were lots of rocks around the cliffs and there was a big sculpture of King Arthur on the top of a cliff.  The castle had a lot of stairs to go up to get to it and they made all of us tired.

Aidan and I lay down on a rock for a little while and it was nice in the sun.

The last thing we did was look at a small church then we walked back to the village and had some lunch.

My favourite part was the cave because it was very dark and long and had water in it. There were some people singing in the cave and they were burning incense.

In the village there is an old Post Office that is 600 years old and we looked in there too.

 

the 600 year old Post Office