Tintagel bridge ‘is as fanciful as Arthur was’

ENGLISH Heritage has defended its decision to restore a lost crossing at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall despite historians claiming that a land bridge never existed at the site.

Last week the organisation released plans for a new footbridge, claiming it would join the two parts of the castle which have been separated by a 190ft gap for hundreds of years.

The castle is the fabled birthplace of King Arthur, and Geoffrey of Monmouth tells how his father Uther Pendragon stole across the natural walkway in disguise to seduce the lady Igraine, Arthur’s mother.

Yet historians say tales of the land bridge are as fanciful as Arthurian legend, and claim there has been no natural crossing to the mainland for thousands of years.

Nikolai Tolstoy, a historian and authority on Arthurian legend, said the plans would “desecrate” the “wild loneliness” of the site.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “There never was a bridge linking the two features, and the assertion that Geoffrey of Monmouth refers to one is untrue. What that notorious fabulist actually wrote was that Merlin crossed by a narrow, rocky ridge, ie a feature very similar to the approach that exists today.”

But writing in today’s letters page, English Heritage has defended its scheme saying there is clear archaeological evidence that it once existed.

Although there is no record of the land bridge collapsing, documents show that the castle suddenly fell out of use around the end of the 15th century, while drawings in the early 1600s show it could only be accessed by ropes.

The name Tintagel means “fortress at the choke-point”, which experts say proves the land bridge was once a crucial part of the castle’s architecture.

Dr Jeremy Ashbee, English Heritage’s head properties curator, said: “The assertion that the present chasm at Tintagel has existed since prehistory, and the implication that the Cornish royal stronghold and later the medieval castle somehow functioned with such a vast gap in the centre, are impossible.

“It was a great Cornish archaeologist, the late Charles Thomas, who popularised the convincing geological argument that Tintagel has been formed by similar processes to those at the adjacent Barras Nose, which is still connected to the mainland.”

The bridge would originally have held a gatehouse and drawbridge, and was so narrow that Geoffrey of Monmouth said it could be defended by just three knights standing side by side against “the whole of Britain.”

The new bridge will be made up of two independent cantilevers, each around 100ft in length, which reach out to almost touch, leaving a 1.5 inch (4cm) gap in the middle so people can experience stepping over onto the other side.

English Heritage says the footbridge will improve access which currently requires a treacherous walk down and a steep climb back up to the other side.