Tintagel Castle
Encyclopedia
Tintagel Castle is a medieval
fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island, adjacent to the village of Tintagel
in Cornwall
, United Kingdom. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British
period, due to an array of artefacts dating to this period which have been found on the peninsula, but as yet no Roman era structure has been proved to have existed there. It subsequently saw settlement during the Early Medieval period, when it was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia
. In the 13th century, during the Later Medieval period, after Cornwall had been subsumed into the kingdom of England, a castle
was built on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, which later fell into disrepair and ruin. Archaeological
investigation into the site began in the 19th century as it became a tourist attraction, with visitors coming to see the ruins of Richard's castle, excavations in the 1930s however revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement that had trading links with the Mediterranean during the Late Roman period.
Not incidentally, the castle has a long association with the Arthurian legends, going back to the 12th century when Geoffrey of Monmouth
in his mythical account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae
described Tintagel as the place of Arthur's conception. According to the tale told by Geoffrey, his father, King Uther Pendragon
, was disguised by Merlin
's sorcery to look like Gorlois
, Duke of Cornwall the husband of Ygerna, Arthur's mother.
Today, Tintagel Castle is a tourist destination, as it has been since the mid 19th century, and it is managed by the governmental organisation English Heritage
.
, who made this newly conquered land a part of their dominion. The region that corresponded with modern Cornwall was found within the Roman administrative region of civitas Dumnoniorum, so-called because the Romans referred to the local British Iron Age tribal group as the Dumnonii
. At the time, this south-westerly point of Britain was "remote, under-populated... and therefore also unimportant [to the Roman authorities] until, during the third century [CE], the local tin
-streaming industry attracted attention." Archaeologists know of five milestones or route-markers that have been found in Cornwall and which would have been erected in the Romano-British period to chart the roads, and two of these have been found in the vicinity of Tintagel, indicating the likelihood that a road passed through the locality.
As Cornish historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas
noted in 1993, "So far, no structure excavated on [Tintagel] Island... can be put forward as a Roman-period settlement, native-peasant or otherwise." Despite this, a quantity of apparently Romano-British pottery has been unearthed on the site, as has a Roman-style drawstring leather purse containing ten low denomination Roman coins, dating between the reigns of Tetricus I
(270-272 CE) and Constantius II
(337-361). This suggests that "at face-value... either the Island or the landward area of the later Castle (or both...) formed the scene of third-fourth century habitation" even if no evidence of any buildings dating from this period have been found.
, which would have been ruled over by its own monarchy
during this Early Mediaeval period between the fifth and eighth centuries. It was in this regional background that settlement continued at Tintagel Castle, with the creation of what is known by archaeologists as Period II of the site. However, there has been some dispute amongst archaeologists as to exactly what the site of Tintagel Island was used for in this period: in the mid twentieth century, it was typically thought that there was an early Christian
monastery on the site, but "since about 1980 ... [this] thesis ... has ... had to be abandoned", with archaeologists now believing that it was instead an elite settlement inhabited by a powerful local warlord or even Dumnonian royalty.
The hypothesis that Tintagel Castle had been a monastery during Period II was pioneered by the Devon archaeologist Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford, who excavated at the site from 1933 through to 1938. He came to this conclusion based upon some similarities in the structures of the Early Medieval elements of Tintagel Castle and the seventh century monastery at the site of Whitby Abbey
in Yorkshire
.
Archaeologists however no longer accept this viewpoint. Instead, they now believe that in the Early Medieval period, this was an elite settlement that was lived in by the Dumnonian royalty and their entourage. Archaeologist and historian Charles Thomas believed that they did not stay at Tintagel all the year round but that they moved around: "A typical king with his family, relatives, dependents, resident hostages, officials and court-followers, and a private militia or war-band--in all, probably between a hundred and three hundred souls at least--moved around with his cumbersome entourage; at least, when not busy with inter-tribal campaigning or in repelling invaders and raiders." The site was also made more defensible during this period, with a large ditch being created at the entrance to the peninsula, leaving only a narrow trackway that those approaching the peninsula had to travel across.
Various luxury items dating to this period have been found at the site, namely African Red Slip Ware
and Phocaean Red Slip Ware, which had been traded all the way from the Mediterranean. Examining this pottery, Charles Thomas remarked that "the quantity of imported pottery from Tintagel [was]... dramatically greater than that from any other single site dated to about 450-600 [CE] in either Britain or Ireland". Carrying on from this, he noted that the quantity of imported pottery from Tintagel was "larger than the combined total of all such pottery from all known sites [of this period in Britain and Ireland]; and, given that only about 5 per cent of the Island's accessible surface has been excavated or examined, the original total of imports may well have been on a scale of one or more complete shiploads - with individual ships perhaps carrying a cargo of six or seven hundred amphorae." This evidence led him to believe that Tintagel was a site where ships carrying their wares from southern Europe docked to deposit their cargo in the Early Medieval period.
with the area and because it was seen as the traditional place for Cornish kings. The castle was built in a more old-fashioned style for the time to make it appear more ancient. Richard hoped that in this way he could gain the Cornish people
's trust, since they were suspicious of outsiders. The castle itself held no real strategic value.
However the dating to the period of Earl Richard has superseded Ralegh Radford's interpretation which attributed the earliest elements of the castle to Earl Reginald de Dunstanville and later elements to Earl Richard. In Sidney Toy's Castles: a short history of fortifications from 1600 B.C. to A. D. 1600 (London: Heinemann, 1939) an earlier period of construction is suggested.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, nothing had been excavated except the chapel and so ideas such as the garden being a cemetery and King Arthur's Footprint being a place for King Arthur to leap to the mainland were given currency. "King Arthur's Footprint" is a hollow in the rock at the highest point of Tintagel Island's southern side. It is not entirely natural, having been shaped by human hands at some stage. It may have been used for the inauguration of kings or chieftains as the site is known to have a long history stretching back to the Dark Ages.
Tintagel Castle is one of the landholdings of the Duke of Cornwall
, Prince Charles, who refuses to reveal the date or circumstances under which the castle was transferred to the care of English Heritage.
In 1999, there was some controversy regarding this site and others under the care of the English Heritage
organisation in Cornwall
. Members of a pressure group, the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, removed several signs bearing the English Heritage name because they objected to the name "English", claiming that Cornwall is rightfully a nation on its own. Three men later paid criminal fines in connection with these actions. Since this action, several of the smaller sites have been transferred to the care of the Cornwall Heritage Trust, such as Dupath Well
, The Hurlers (stone circles)
, Tregiffian Burial Chamber
, St Breock Downs Monolith, King Doniert's Stone
, Trethevy Quoit
, and Carn Euny
.
The Union-Castle shipping line had the Tintagel Castle in their fleet from 1954 to 1971. An earlier ship of the same name was in service in 1900 between Britain and South Africa. The locomotive 'Tintagel Castle' was built for the Great Western Railway
in the 4073 series
and was in service 1927-1962. One of First Great Western's
class 57
locomotives, 57603, carries this name.
associated with King Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth
in his mythical account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae
. The Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), was written circa 1135-38 by the Welshman Geoffrey of Monmouth
. In this book, which is a fictionalised account of British history, Arthur's father, the king of all Britain, Uther Pendragon
, is said to go to war against Gorlois
, the Duke of Cornwall, in order to capture the wife of Gorlois, Igraine
, with whom Uther has fallen in love. While Gorlois defends himself against Uther's armies at his fort of Dimilioc, he sends Igraine to stay safe within Tintagel Castle, which is supposedly his most secure refuge. Besieging Dimilioc, Uther tells his friend Ulfin how he loves Igraine, but Ulfin replies that it would be impossible to take Tintagel, for "it is right by the sea, and surrounded by the sea on all sides; and there is no other way into it, except that provided by a narrow rocky passage--and there, three armed warriors could forbid all entry, even if you took up your stand with the whole of Britain behind you." Geoffrey of Monmouth's story goes on to explain how the wizard Merlin
was summoned, and in order to help get them into Tintagel Castle, he magically changed Uther's appearance to that of Gorlois, whilst also changing his own and Ulfin's appearances to those of two of Gorlois's companions. Disguised thus, they are able to enter Tintagel, where Uther goes to Igraine, and "in that night was the most famous of men, Arthur, conceived."
Despite their association in Geoffrey’s work, "The History nowhere claims that Arthur was born at Tintagel, or that he ever visited the place in later life, or that in any sense the stronghold became his property when he was king." However, the book became hugely popular, spreading across Britain in the Late Medieval period, when more Arthurian texts were produced, and many of them began propagating the idea that Arthur himself was actually born at Tintagel. Later poets, such as Tennyson
, made the castle his birthplace. A modern myth has St Nectan's Kieve, a pool beneath a waterfall nearby, as the place where King Arthur's Knights were anointed before going off to find the Holy Grail.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
's Tristram of Lyonesse
is one of the versions of the Tristan and Iseult
legends where some of the events are set at Tintagel. Another version is Thomas Hardy
's The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse, a one act play which was published in 1923 (the book included an imaginary drawing of the castle at the period). There is now a footpath from the site to Cadbury Castle
in Somerset called Arthur's Way, A book has been produced in which the pupils of Tintagel C. P. School have collaborated with artist Michael Fairfax and writer Amanda White.
The archaeologist C. A. Ralegh Radford declared in 1935 that "No evidence whatsoever has been found to support the legendary connection of the Castle with King Arthur". Such an idea has continued to be maintained by archaeologists and historians, with Charles Thomas
, a specialist in Cornish history, noting in 1993 that "There simply is no independently attested connection in early Cornish folklore locating Arthur, at any age or in any capacity, at Tintagel." Indeed, many historians believe King Arthur to be an entirely mythical character with no basis in historical fact, whilst some others disagree, maintaining that the legendary figure may be based upon an Early Medieval British leader who might have been involved in fighting the migrating Anglo-Saxons
who were settling in Britain at that time.
(1900–1999) to work as site director. He had formerly been employed as the Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire from 1929 and 1934, and from 1936 would go on to become Director of the British School at Rome
. Excavation began in 1933, and in 1935 both an interim report and a guidebook entitled Tintagel Castle were written by Ralegh Radford and published by H. M. Stationery Office. The excavators employed former quarry workers (the last Tintagel cliff quarry was closed in 1937), who worked under a trained foreman and who were instructed to clear the land on the Island, following and exposing any walling that they came across and keeping any finds. Excavation was forced to cease in 1939 due to the outbreak of the Second World War, in which the United Kingdom played a major role. Ralegh Radford was required to take part in the war effort abroad, whilst many of the original site reports were destroyed when his house in Exeter
was bombed by the Luftwaffe
during the conflict.
In the mid-1980s, a fire on Tintagel Island led to considerable erosion of the topsoil, and many more building foundations than were recorded by Ralegh Radford could be seen. In 1998, the miscalled "Arthur stone
" (discovered on the Island) raised hopes for some basis for the legend. The present-day ruins of the castle are situated on a rocky peninsula that overlooks a part of the Atlantic Ocean
, known as the Celtic Sea
.According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, over 190,000 people visited Tintagel Castle in 2010.
England in the Middle Ages
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...
fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island, adjacent to the village of Tintagel
Tintagel
Tintagel is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is ....
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, United Kingdom. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
period, due to an array of artefacts dating to this period which have been found on the peninsula, but as yet no Roman era structure has been proved to have existed there. It subsequently saw settlement during the Early Medieval period, when it was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...
. In the 13th century, during the Later Medieval period, after Cornwall had been subsumed into the kingdom of England, a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
was built on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, which later fell into disrepair and ruin. Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
investigation into the site began in the 19th century as it became a tourist attraction, with visitors coming to see the ruins of Richard's castle, excavations in the 1930s however revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement that had trading links with the Mediterranean during the Late Roman period.
Not incidentally, the castle has a long association with the Arthurian legends, going back to the 12th century when Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
in his mythical account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
described Tintagel as the place of Arthur's conception. According to the tale told by Geoffrey, his father, King Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
, was disguised by Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
's sorcery to look like Gorlois
Gorlois
Gorlois was a Duke of Cornwall and Igraine's first husband before her marriage to Uther Pendragon, according to the Arthurian legend...
, Duke of Cornwall the husband of Ygerna, Arthur's mother.
Today, Tintagel Castle is a tourist destination, as it has been since the mid 19th century, and it is managed by the governmental organisation English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
.
Romano-British period
In the first century CE, southern Britain was invaded and occupied by the armies of the Roman EmpireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, who made this newly conquered land a part of their dominion. The region that corresponded with modern Cornwall was found within the Roman administrative region of civitas Dumnoniorum, so-called because the Romans referred to the local British Iron Age tribal group as the Dumnonii
Dumnonii
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British Celtic tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall in the farther parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period...
. At the time, this south-westerly point of Britain was "remote, under-populated... and therefore also unimportant [to the Roman authorities] until, during the third century [CE], the local tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
-streaming industry attracted attention." Archaeologists know of five milestones or route-markers that have been found in Cornwall and which would have been erected in the Romano-British period to chart the roads, and two of these have been found in the vicinity of Tintagel, indicating the likelihood that a road passed through the locality.
As Cornish historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas
Charles Thomas (historian)
Antony Charles Thomas, CBE, FSA is a British historian and archaeologist who was Professor of Cornish Studies at Exeter University, and the first Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, from 1971 until his retirement in 1991...
noted in 1993, "So far, no structure excavated on [Tintagel] Island... can be put forward as a Roman-period settlement, native-peasant or otherwise." Despite this, a quantity of apparently Romano-British pottery has been unearthed on the site, as has a Roman-style drawstring leather purse containing ten low denomination Roman coins, dating between the reigns of Tetricus I
Tetricus I
Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was Emperor of the Gallic Empire from 271 to 274, following the murder of Victorinus. Tetricus, who ruled with his son, Tetricus II, was the last of the Gallic emperors following his surrender to the Roman emperor Aurelian.-Reign:Tetricus was a senator born to a noble...
(270-272 CE) and Constantius II
Constantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
(337-361). This suggests that "at face-value... either the Island or the landward area of the later Castle (or both...) formed the scene of third-fourth century habitation" even if no evidence of any buildings dating from this period have been found.
Early Medieval period
Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century CE, Roman control of southern Britain collapsed, and it split into various different kingdoms, each with their own respective chiefs or kings. The former Roman district of civitas Dumnoniorum apparently became the Kingdom of DumnoniaDumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...
, which would have been ruled over by its own monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
during this Early Mediaeval period between the fifth and eighth centuries. It was in this regional background that settlement continued at Tintagel Castle, with the creation of what is known by archaeologists as Period II of the site. However, there has been some dispute amongst archaeologists as to exactly what the site of Tintagel Island was used for in this period: in the mid twentieth century, it was typically thought that there was an early Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
monastery on the site, but "since about 1980 ... [this] thesis ... has ... had to be abandoned", with archaeologists now believing that it was instead an elite settlement inhabited by a powerful local warlord or even Dumnonian royalty.
The hypothesis that Tintagel Castle had been a monastery during Period II was pioneered by the Devon archaeologist Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford, who excavated at the site from 1933 through to 1938. He came to this conclusion based upon some similarities in the structures of the Early Medieval elements of Tintagel Castle and the seventh century monastery at the site of Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey is a ruined Benedictine abbey overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. It was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the auspices of Henry VIII...
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
Archaeologists however no longer accept this viewpoint. Instead, they now believe that in the Early Medieval period, this was an elite settlement that was lived in by the Dumnonian royalty and their entourage. Archaeologist and historian Charles Thomas believed that they did not stay at Tintagel all the year round but that they moved around: "A typical king with his family, relatives, dependents, resident hostages, officials and court-followers, and a private militia or war-band--in all, probably between a hundred and three hundred souls at least--moved around with his cumbersome entourage; at least, when not busy with inter-tribal campaigning or in repelling invaders and raiders." The site was also made more defensible during this period, with a large ditch being created at the entrance to the peninsula, leaving only a narrow trackway that those approaching the peninsula had to travel across.
Various luxury items dating to this period have been found at the site, namely African Red Slip Ware
African red slip
African red slip is a category of terra sigillata, or "fine" Ancient Roman pottery produced in the province of Africa Proconsularis, specifically that part roughly coinciding with the modern country of Tunisia and the Diocletianic provinces of Byzacena and Zeugitana. It is distinguished by a...
and Phocaean Red Slip Ware, which had been traded all the way from the Mediterranean. Examining this pottery, Charles Thomas remarked that "the quantity of imported pottery from Tintagel [was]... dramatically greater than that from any other single site dated to about 450-600 [CE] in either Britain or Ireland". Carrying on from this, he noted that the quantity of imported pottery from Tintagel was "larger than the combined total of all such pottery from all known sites [of this period in Britain and Ireland]; and, given that only about 5 per cent of the Island's accessible surface has been excavated or examined, the original total of imports may well have been on a scale of one or more complete shiploads - with individual ships perhaps carrying a cargo of six or seven hundred amphorae." This evidence led him to believe that Tintagel was a site where ships carrying their wares from southern Europe docked to deposit their cargo in the Early Medieval period.
Late Medieval period
A castle was built on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall in 1233, to establish a connection with the Arthurian legends that were associated by Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
with the area and because it was seen as the traditional place for Cornish kings. The castle was built in a more old-fashioned style for the time to make it appear more ancient. Richard hoped that in this way he could gain the Cornish people
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
's trust, since they were suspicious of outsiders. The castle itself held no real strategic value.
However the dating to the period of Earl Richard has superseded Ralegh Radford's interpretation which attributed the earliest elements of the castle to Earl Reginald de Dunstanville and later elements to Earl Richard. In Sidney Toy's Castles: a short history of fortifications from 1600 B.C. to A. D. 1600 (London: Heinemann, 1939) an earlier period of construction is suggested.
Early Modern period
After Richard, the following Earls of Cornwall were not interested in the castle, and it was left to the county sheriff. Parts of the accommodation were used as a prison and the land was let as pasture. The castle became more dilapidated, and in the 1330s the roof of the Great Hall was removed. Thereafter the castle became more and more ruinous and there was progressive damage from the erosion of the isthmus. When John Leland visited in the early 1540s a makeshift bridge of tree trunks gave access to the Island. When England was threatened with invasion from Spain in the 1580s the defences were strengthened at the Iron Gate. As Duchy of Cornwall property the manor of Tintagel was among those seized by the Commonwealth government of the 1650s (returning to the Duchy in 1660). The letting for sheep pasture continued until the 19th century.Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
During the Victorian era, there was a fascination with the Arthurian legends, and the ruins of the castle became a tourist destination. The modern day village of Tintagel was known as Trevena until the 1850s, when it was found convenient by the Post Office to use the name of the parish rather than the name of the village. Strictly speaking, Tintagel is only the name of the headland (Tintagel Head itself is the extreme south-west point of Castle Island and the castle ruins are partly on the 'island' and partly on the adjoining mainland). The Rev. R. B. Kinsman (d. 1894) was honorary constable and built the courtyard wall: a guide was employed to conduct the visitors into the castle. Until his time the steps either side of the isthmus were unsafe, though the plateau could be reached by those who grazed sheep there. From 1870 a lead mine was worked for a short time near Merlin's Cave. In the 20th century the site was maintained by the Office of Works and its successors (from 1929 onwards). In 1975 the access across the isthmus was improved by the installation of a wooden bridge.In the late 19th and early 20th century, nothing had been excavated except the chapel and so ideas such as the garden being a cemetery and King Arthur's Footprint being a place for King Arthur to leap to the mainland were given currency. "King Arthur's Footprint" is a hollow in the rock at the highest point of Tintagel Island's southern side. It is not entirely natural, having been shaped by human hands at some stage. It may have been used for the inauguration of kings or chieftains as the site is known to have a long history stretching back to the Dark Ages.
Tintagel Castle is one of the landholdings of the Duke of Cornwall
Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne. If the monarch has no son, the...
, Prince Charles, who refuses to reveal the date or circumstances under which the castle was transferred to the care of English Heritage.
In 1999, there was some controversy regarding this site and others under the care of the English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
organisation in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
. Members of a pressure group, the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, removed several signs bearing the English Heritage name because they objected to the name "English", claiming that Cornwall is rightfully a nation on its own. Three men later paid criminal fines in connection with these actions. Since this action, several of the smaller sites have been transferred to the care of the Cornwall Heritage Trust, such as Dupath Well
Dupath Well
Dupath Well is a nearly intact wellhouse, constructed of local granite, built over a spring. Built of Cornish granite ashlar, it has a steeply-pitched roof, built from courses of granite slabs that run the length of the building. There are badly weathered pinnacles at each corner and a small bell...
, The Hurlers (stone circles)
The Hurlers (stone circles)
The Hurlers are a group of three stone circles in Cornwall, England, UK. The site is half-a-mile west of the village of Minions on the eastern flank of Bodmin Moor, and approximately four miles north of Liskeard at .-Location:The Hurlers are in the Caradon district north of Liskeard in the...
, Tregiffian Burial Chamber
Tregiffian Burial Chamber
The Tregiffian Burial Chamber is a Neolithic or early Bronze age chambered tomb. An entrance passage, lined with stone slabs, leads into a central chamber. It is located near Lamorna in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a rare form of a passage grave, known as an Entrance grave...
, St Breock Downs Monolith, King Doniert's Stone
King Doniert's Stone
King Doniert's Stone consists of two pieces of a decorated 9th century cross. The inscription is believed to commemorate Dungarth, King of Cornwall who died around 875....
, Trethevy Quoit
Trethevy Quoit
Trethevy Quoit is a well-preserved megalithic tomb located near St Cleer, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is known locally as "the giant's house". Standing high, it consists of five standing stones capped by a large slab.-Location:...
, and Carn Euny
Carn Euny
Carn Euny is an archaeological site near Sancreed, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom with considerable evidence of both Iron Age and post-Iron Age settlement. Excavations on this site have shown that there was activity at Carn Euny as early as the Neolithic period...
.
The Union-Castle shipping line had the Tintagel Castle in their fleet from 1954 to 1971. An earlier ship of the same name was in service in 1900 between Britain and South Africa. The locomotive 'Tintagel Castle' was built for the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
in the 4073 series
GWR 4073 Class
The GWR 4073 Class or Castle class locomotives are a group of 4-6-0 steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway. They were originally designed by the railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Charles Collett, for working the company's express passenger trains.-History:A development of the earlier...
and was in service 1927-1962. One of First Great Western's
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....
class 57
British Rail Class 57
The Class 57 diesel locomotives were introduced by Brush Traction between 1997-2004. They are rebuilds, with reconditioned EMD engines, of former Class 47 locomotives, originally introduced in 1964-5.- Description :...
locomotives, 57603, carries this name.
Arthurian legend
The castle has a long association with the Arthurian legends, being firstassociated with King Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
in his mythical account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. The Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), was written circa 1135-38 by the Welshman Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
. In this book, which is a fictionalised account of British history, Arthur's father, the king of all Britain, Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
, is said to go to war against Gorlois
Gorlois
Gorlois was a Duke of Cornwall and Igraine's first husband before her marriage to Uther Pendragon, according to the Arthurian legend...
, the Duke of Cornwall, in order to capture the wife of Gorlois, Igraine
Igraine
Igraine , in Arthurian legend, is the mother of King Arthur. She is also known in Latin as Igerna, in Welsh as Eigyr, in French as Igerne, in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Ygrayne— often modernized as Igraine—and in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival as Arnive...
, with whom Uther has fallen in love. While Gorlois defends himself against Uther's armies at his fort of Dimilioc, he sends Igraine to stay safe within Tintagel Castle, which is supposedly his most secure refuge. Besieging Dimilioc, Uther tells his friend Ulfin how he loves Igraine, but Ulfin replies that it would be impossible to take Tintagel, for "it is right by the sea, and surrounded by the sea on all sides; and there is no other way into it, except that provided by a narrow rocky passage--and there, three armed warriors could forbid all entry, even if you took up your stand with the whole of Britain behind you." Geoffrey of Monmouth's story goes on to explain how the wizard Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
was summoned, and in order to help get them into Tintagel Castle, he magically changed Uther's appearance to that of Gorlois, whilst also changing his own and Ulfin's appearances to those of two of Gorlois's companions. Disguised thus, they are able to enter Tintagel, where Uther goes to Igraine, and "in that night was the most famous of men, Arthur, conceived."
Despite their association in Geoffrey’s work, "The History nowhere claims that Arthur was born at Tintagel, or that he ever visited the place in later life, or that in any sense the stronghold became his property when he was king." However, the book became hugely popular, spreading across Britain in the Late Medieval period, when more Arthurian texts were produced, and many of them began propagating the idea that Arthur himself was actually born at Tintagel. Later poets, such as Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
, made the castle his birthplace. A modern myth has St Nectan's Kieve, a pool beneath a waterfall nearby, as the place where King Arthur's Knights were anointed before going off to find the Holy Grail.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
's Tristram of Lyonesse
Tristram of Lyonesse
"Tristram of Lyonesse" is a long epic poem written by the British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, that recounts in grand fashion the famous medieval story of the ill-fated lovers Tristan and Isolde . It was first published in 1882 by Chatto and Windus, in a volume entitled Tristram of Lyonesse and...
is one of the versions of the Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
legends where some of the events are set at Tintagel. Another version is Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
's The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse, a one act play which was published in 1923 (the book included an imaginary drawing of the castle at the period). There is now a footpath from the site to Cadbury Castle
Cadbury Castle, Somerset
Cadbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort in the civil parish of South Cadbury in the English county of Somerset. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and associated with King Arthur.-Background:...
in Somerset called Arthur's Way, A book has been produced in which the pupils of Tintagel C. P. School have collaborated with artist Michael Fairfax and writer Amanda White.
The archaeologist C. A. Ralegh Radford declared in 1935 that "No evidence whatsoever has been found to support the legendary connection of the Castle with King Arthur". Such an idea has continued to be maintained by archaeologists and historians, with Charles Thomas
Charles Thomas (historian)
Antony Charles Thomas, CBE, FSA is a British historian and archaeologist who was Professor of Cornish Studies at Exeter University, and the first Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, from 1971 until his retirement in 1991...
, a specialist in Cornish history, noting in 1993 that "There simply is no independently attested connection in early Cornish folklore locating Arthur, at any age or in any capacity, at Tintagel." Indeed, many historians believe King Arthur to be an entirely mythical character with no basis in historical fact, whilst some others disagree, maintaining that the legendary figure may be based upon an Early Medieval British leader who might have been involved in fighting the migrating Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
who were settling in Britain at that time.
Excavation
In the 1930s, it was decided to begin a major archaeological excavation at the site, and so HM Office of Works employed the Devonshire archaeologist Courtenay Arthur Ralegh RadfordRalegh Radford
Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford was an English archaeologist and historian who pioneered the exploration of the Dark Ages of Britain and popularized his findings in many official guides and surveys for the Office of Works...
(1900–1999) to work as site director. He had formerly been employed as the Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire from 1929 and 1934, and from 1936 would go on to become Director of the British School at Rome
British School at Rome
The British School at Rome was established in 1901 and granted a Royal Charter in 1912 as an educational institute in the fields of archaeology, literature, music, and history of Rome and Italy of every period, and for the study of the fine arts and architecture...
. Excavation began in 1933, and in 1935 both an interim report and a guidebook entitled Tintagel Castle were written by Ralegh Radford and published by H. M. Stationery Office. The excavators employed former quarry workers (the last Tintagel cliff quarry was closed in 1937), who worked under a trained foreman and who were instructed to clear the land on the Island, following and exposing any walling that they came across and keeping any finds. Excavation was forced to cease in 1939 due to the outbreak of the Second World War, in which the United Kingdom played a major role. Ralegh Radford was required to take part in the war effort abroad, whilst many of the original site reports were destroyed when his house in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
was bombed by the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
during the conflict.
In the mid-1980s, a fire on Tintagel Island led to considerable erosion of the topsoil, and many more building foundations than were recorded by Ralegh Radford could be seen. In 1998, the miscalled "Arthur stone
Arthur stone
The Artognou stone, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Arthur stone, is an archaeological artifact uncovered in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was discovered in 1998 in securely dated sixth-century contexts among the ruins at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, a secular, high status...
" (discovered on the Island) raised hopes for some basis for the legend. The present-day ruins of the castle are situated on a rocky peninsula that overlooks a part of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, known as the Celtic Sea
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany...
.According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, over 190,000 people visited Tintagel Castle in 2010.
External links
- Visiting information for Tintagel Castle: English Heritage
- Information for teachers: English Heritage
- About Tintagel
- Tintagel Castle and haunted castles
- Tintagel Castle, by Philip Davis
- Photographs and information from Strolling Guides
- Archaeology, by Glasgow University archaeologists
- Geoffrey of Monmouth