Tintagel Castle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Overlooking the ruins of Tintagel Castle. Part of the village can be seen in the distance.

Another view from the top of Tintagel castle.

Tintagel Castle (grid reference SX051889) is located near Tintagel in Cornwall, England, UK. It was built by Reginald, Earl of Cornwall on Tintagel Head, where according to Cornish legends the ancient Kings of Cornwall held their court. The castle was built for propaganda purposes and had no real strategic value. It is often speculated that it was a summer residence for the rulers of Dumnonia. The Ravenna Cosmography, of around 700, makes reference to Purocoronavis, (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii, (unidentified, but possibly referring to Tintagel Castle or Carn Brea castle).

It was claimed by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century that the castle at Tintagel Head was where King Uther Pendragon seduced Queen Igraine of Cornwall, while her husband, Gorlois, was under siege elsewhere. King Arthur was thus conceived and later writers made the castle his birthplace.

A Dark Ages Celtic fortress did exist there. The first excavations, which were undertaken by Ralegh Radford in the 1930s, have come under modern criticism, partly because the site documentation was slight, by modern standards Radford led a considerable interpretative shift when he suggested that Tintagel was in fact a Celtic monastery and not an "Arthurian" site. In the mid-1980s a fire on Tintagel headland led to considerable erosion of the topsoil, and many more building foundations than were recorded by Radford could be seen.^[1] In 1998 the mis-called "Arthur stone" was discovered there that raised hopes for some basis for the legend.^[2] The present-day ruins of the castle are situated on a rocky headland that overlooks the Cornish coast. Tintagel Castle is one of the landholdings of the Duchy of Cornwall/Prince Charles who refuse to reveal the date or circumstances under which the castle was transferred to the care of English Heritage. It has proved not possible to obtain this information. as there is a Parliamentary injunction ^[3] preventing MP’s from raising questions about, or even attempting to discuss, Duchy related matters. On 16th July 1997 the Liberal Democrat Andrew George MP attempted to raise a Duchy-related question but he was prevented by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy.

The modern day village of Tintagel was known as Trevena until the 1850s, when it was renamed to promote tourism on the back of the King Arthur and Camelot legends. Strictly speaking, Tintagel is only the name of the headland.

In 1999 there was some controversy regarding this site and others under the care of the English Heritage organisation. Members of a pressure group, the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, removed several signs bearing the English Heritage name.^[4]^[5]