Pat Coulter takes a spellbinding trip to Cornwall’s Tintagel
Pat Coulter is spellbound by the mythical birthplace of King Arthur on the Cornish coast.
ROLL up! Roll up for a magical, mystical tour – to Cornwall’s Tintagel, King Arthur’s legendary birthplace. Apologies to the Beatles for this slight play on words, although fans will know they did pass this way on their psychedelic charabanc bus tour back in 1967.
No psychedelic buses today. There is, however, a painted Aston Martin that has me scratching my head, parked outside the fittingly named Camelot Castle Hotel.
Surely it doesn’t belong to James Bond – hardly his macho style!
The creatively daubed supercar belongs to the hotel’s artist in residence.
The imposing clifftop hotel is a Victorian interpretation of what was originally built in anticipation for a new railway line terminating at Tintagel in the late 1800s and dubbed King Arthur’s Hotel.
The line was never built this far, halting instead at nearby Camelford.
It was enough to attract a horde of Victorian tourists from crowded conurbations to this ruggedly spectacular coastline with its aweinspiring views and legendary tales.
The Victorians had a fascination for Arthurian legend, and here was their chance to admire the inspirational landscape, letting their imaginations mingle with tales of fact, myth and legend.
Even then, artists and writers were drawn to this mystical land, as though Merlin himself had waved his magic wand and lured them there.
Charles Dickens, Thomas
Hardy and Alfred, Lord Tennyson were all spellbound.
Tintagel inspired Poet Laureate Tennyson to write his hugely popular “Idylls Of The King”.
The poet had a life-long fascination with the legend of King Arthur, and after the huge success of his poem “Morte d’arthur” he built on the theme with this series of 12 poems.
“Idylls Of The King” traces the story of Arthur’s rule, from his first encounter with Guinevere and the quest for the Holy Grail to the adultery of his Queen with Launcelot and the King’s death in a final battle that spelled the ruin of his kingdom.
Back in the 12th century, it was the scholar Geoffrey of Monmouth who first linked Arthur with Tintagel in his “History Of The Kings Of Britain”, describing it as the island fortress where Arthur was conceived thanks to the magic of Merlin.
The legend has been embellished and kept alive by writers throughout the centuries ever since.
We are making a welcome return to Tintagel for an extra special reason.
It’s been 500 years since folk have been able to cross from the mainland at Tintagel Castle to the remote island rocky outcrop where once stood a natural land bridge joining the two.
The natural bridge came crashing down, eroded by the battering of harsh storms blown in from the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean.
Where once was solid rock now stands an ethereal-looking 21st-century footbridge.
It’s an extraordinary modern-day portal into King Arthur’s legendary domain.
Tintagel was originally known as Trevena, meaning
“village on a mountain” in Cornish, until the post office used the name Tintagel in Victorian times.
Before then, Tintagel was just used to refer to the castle mount and the general parish.
The Old Post Office is a Grade I listed property owned by the National Trust, and has evolved over the years since it was first built circa 1380.
Originally a mediaeval thatched house of three rooms with a throughpassage, the building would originally have been a single-storey dwelling, open to the roof, housing livestock in the northern partition.
Today, the thatch has been replaced by a charmingly wonky slate roof.
Heading along the high street, I bravely resist following the enticing aroma of freshly baked Cornish pasties in Bisto Kid fashion.
Pasties and browsing the myriad galleries and little independent souvenir shops will be something to look forward to later, after our exploration!
The steep lane of Castle Road leading to Tintagel Castle leads us down into a scenic valley, cutting towards the sea.
High up on the exposed clifftop lies the isolated parish church of Saint Materiana, keeping a vigil over the village.
It’s believed a church has graced the same site since the sixth century.
The path splits in two, up towards the castle ruins and down further to Haven Beach, home to Merlin’s Cave, English Heritage’s Exhibition and Interpretation Centre and a most enticing café.
Surefooted walkers are trudging the coastal path from Boscastle direction for a welcome pit stop.
They shrug off hefty backpacks to rest awhile, seated on picnic tables overlooking the rocky cove.
For us, rounding the corner, suddenly there’s the great reveal.
The new footbridge comes into view in aweinspiring fashion, stretching across the rocky chasm.
I wasn’t quite prepared for its sheer height.
Gazing up at the delicate cantilever structure from sea-level certainly instils a frisson of excitement in me, knowing we’re supposed to be walking across there soon!
Hope it doesn’t wobble! Poppy dog joyfully takes a romp on the beach as the tide recedes, revealing the entrance to Merlin’s Cave.
Immersing myself in the innovative new interactive Visitor
Centre, I discover that long before the legend came the history.
In the so-called Dark Ages, from around
AD 450, Tintagel, despite its remoteness, was a prosperous and influential trading port with links to the Mediterranean.
The area remained important through to the building of Richard, Earl of Cornwall’s 13th-century castle, the remnants of which are still present.
Now it’s time to explore the footprint and ruins of Richard’s mediaeval castle, where the courtyard, hall and chapel once gloriously stood, defying the elements for centuries until nature took its merciless toll on the mighty edifice which played host to both merriment and intrigue.
We’ve made our way through the ruins of the castle’s former gatehouse to the threshold of the new footbridge.
The 190ft crossing over the gorge stretches before us. Thankfully, it doesn’t look too intimidating from this perspective.
Poppy thinks otherwise, however.
With her heightened doggy senses, she knows something’s amiss and she’s stubbornly digging her paws in, refusing to cross.
Her antics make one of the volunteer guides laugh.
“My Alsatian was just the same. I had to carry him across, all thirty kilos of him!”
Thankfully, Poppy’s light frame is much more user-friendly and I easily scoop her up into my arms.
Far more intrepid than us are a couple of chaps suspended, spider-like, from ropes over the knee-trembling drop, assiduously painting the steel structure.
“We’re thankful it’s not the Forth Bridge,” one of the workers says goodhumouredly.
Fortunately, Poppy isn’t wriggling in my arms and I’m able to admire the detailing of the bridge, from the tactile oak handrails to the slate tile walkway. The slates were quarried just down the road at Delabole.
I’m reliably informed there are 40,000 in all, many sponsored at £5 a tile, hand-signed by the donators, including Prince Charles and Camilla, who had officially opened the bridge just weeks before our visit.
Although cared for by English Heritage, Tintagel Castle belongs to Charles’s private Duchy of Cornwall estate and was placed into State Guardianship in 1931 by the future Edward VIII.
Momentously, the Prince became the first Duke of Cornwall in at least 400 years to enter the historic mediaeval fortress in the way its builders intended after he opened the new footbridge.
Halfway across, there’s a surprise with a narrow gasp-inducing gap at my feet.
It’s just a few centimetres but enough to give the thrill of glimpsing the rocks and crashing waves 200ft below.
Poppy must have had a premonition about the “great” divide!
This is the symbolic gap, designed to represent the transition between the mainland and the island, present and past, history and legend.
So significant was this historic crossing that it gave rise to the place name Din Tagell, Cornish for “the Fortress of the Narrow Entrance”.
The mediaeval scholar Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that this land bridge was so narrow that “three armed men would be able to defend [it], even if you had the whole kingdom of Britain at your side.”
Legend has it that the King of Britain, Uther Pendragon – transformed by the wizard Merlin into the likeness of the Duke of Cornwall – stole across this passageway into the castle, where he spent the night with the Duke’s wife, Ygerna, who later gave birth to King Arthur.
So impressed was Richard, Earl of Cornwall, by the Arthurian myth that in the 1230s and 1240s he built a castle at Tintagel, with the land bridge a dramatic, integral part of its design.
Safely across on to the fabled isle a mighty eightfoot-high bronze statue of King Arthur stands obdurately to the elements.
Dubbed “Gallos”, meaning “power” in Cornish, the legendary King watches over his realm, the land ahead of him, the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
Nearby, a young Knight of the Realm emulates the mighty King, plastic sword in hand, pretending to pull it from a rock.
With such awe-inspiring scenery, this is selfie heaven for many!
As for us, we’d like to thank the great wizard Merlin for a spellbinding trip to magical Tintagel. ■