If You're Looking For A Magical Day Out In Cornwall, Why Not Take The Family To Tintagel Castle

Its wonderful location, set high on the rugged North Cornwall coast, offers dramatic views, and its fascinating ruins and stunning beach cafe make it a perfect day trip, ideal for those on holiday in Dorset, Cornwall or Dartmoor.

Tintagel Castle is steeped in legend and mystery; said to be the birthplace of King Arthur, you can still visit the nearby Merlin's Cave. The castle also features in the tale of Tristan and Isolde. With a history stretching as far back as the Romans, Tintagel Castle is one of the most iconic visitor attractions in the south west.

Tintagel Castle is a Mediaeval settlement located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island, adjacent to the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British period, due to an array of artefacts dating to this period being found on the peninsula, but as of yet no Roman era structure has been located as having existed there. It subsequently saw settlement during the Early Mediaeval period, when it was likely one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia.

In the thirteenth century, during the Later Mediaeval period, when Cornwall had been subsumed into the kingdom of England, a castle was built on the site by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, which later fell into disrepair and ruin. Archaeological investigation into the site began in the nineteenth century as it became a tourist attraction, with visitors coming to see the ruins of Richard's castle, excavations in the 1930s however revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement that had trading links with the Mediterranean during the Late Roman period.

Not incidentally, the castle has a long association with the Arthurian legends, being first given as the birthplace of King Arthur in the ninth century by Nennius, and later elaborated by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his mythical account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae. Since this time a wide variety of romantic poets and novelists have given Tintagel as the place of conception of Arthur his father, King Uther Pendragon, winning the castle by Merlin's sorcery from Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, nothing had been excavated except the chapel and so ideas such as the garden being a cemetery and King Arthur's Footprint being a place for King Arthur to leap to the mainland were given currency."King Arthur's Footprint" is a hollow in the rock at the highest point of Tintagel Island's southern side. It is not entirely natural, having been shaped by human hands at some stage.It may have been used for the inauguration of kings or chieftains as the site is known to have a long history stretching back to the Dark Ages.

In 1998, the miscalled "Arthur stone" (discovered on the Island) raised hopes for some basis for the legend. The present-day ruins of the castle are situated on a rocky peninsula that overlooks a part of the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Celtic Sea.