TINTAGEL TRIPPERS
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall walk through a stone archway at the ruins of Tintagel Castle during a visit yesterday to the Cornish fortress, which sits on a clifftop. The Royal couple are on a three-day visit to Cornwall, which will run until tomorrow.
THE DUCHESS of Cornwall joked about “not looking down” as she crossed a new footbridge spanning a perilous gap between cliffs with the Prince of Wales.
Camilla made light of the drop to the crashing waves, almost 200ft below, as they strode across the walkway at Tintagel Castle in north Cornwall. The prince became the first Duke of Cornwall in at least 400 years to enter the historic medieval fortress in the way its builders intended after he opened the new footbridge.
The visit was part of a day-long tour of the county by Camilla and later she unveiled a new helicopter for Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust, by pulling back a Covid-19 tartan face mask on its nose-cone, before two paramedics raced off to an emergency call.
After the prince cut a ribbon to officially open the bridge the couple walked across and the duchess told her husband: “I’m not looking down, I’m looking above.”
The original walkway was narrow so, it was claimed, three knights could have defended Tintagel Castle against an entire kingdom. But the link collapsed in the 15th or 16th centuries meaning tourists were confronted with a demanding trek up and down a steep path in order to access the fortress.
The sleek new bridge of steel, oak and Cornish slate over a 190 ft gorge was built as part of a £5m redevelopment of the site and opened to visitors in August 2019. It follows the line of the original route between the 13th-century gatehouse on the mainland and the courtyard on the jagged headland or island jutting into the sea.