Tintagel lies on the northern coast of Cornwall. It would be an ideal place to wait out a zombie apocalypse, in that it’s basically a small island with very steep, rough sides. You can get to it from the mainland via a crazy little footbridge, but without that you’d need climbing gear. If you had enough food and fuel, you’d be all set.
So people had been fortifying the island for a long time, long before the Romans came. Later on it became tangled up in the King Arthur story and is said to be where he was conceived and born. If I was a local 5th-century warlord, I’d certainly have used it as my headquarters.
Here’s where you get down to the beach with the cave.
The island was the scene of a lot of trade during the pre-Roman times and during the Roman occupation. Archeologists found pottery and glassware here from across the Mediterranean world.
Richard Earl of Cornwall was brother to Henry III, and built a castle compound here in the 1230s. This pic above was part of his Great Hall. (The block on the hilltop beyond is a modern hotel.)
A hundred years later, Edward the Black Prince was Earl of Cornwall and rebuilt the site, but it was neglected and soon was in ruins. By 1600, it was deserted.
Foreground is 5th-century ruins, 13th-century ruins behind that, and then you can see the steps down to the bridge back on the mainland. Over on the left is where the path splits to go down to the beach.
The little harbor is called the Haven, and that rocky headland to the left is Barras Nose.
I never did climb the stairs to the upper mainland courtyard, which you see above and to the right. That would have been the 13th-century entrance to the island.
I remember toiling back up the hill to the town in 1996. By 2005, some enterprising local was parking his Jeep at the bottom of the hill and offering the tourists a quick lift back up to the top.
Now there is a new suspension bridge from the upper (mainland) courtyard that saves a lot of stair-climbing. The island is now much more accessible.
You might want to check out the Tintagel 1996 pix from my first visit.
Click here to retrace your steps to the 2005 page.