19 Facts About Tintagel Castle

Two digs in 2016 and 2017 at Tintagel Castle uncovered the outlines of a palace from the 5th or early 6th century, with evidence of writing and of articles brought in from Spain and from the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

Tintagel Castle has a long association with legends related to King Arthur.

Tintagel Castle has been a tourist destination since the mid-19th century.

Two of these are in the vicinity of Tintagel Castle, indicating that a road passed through the locality.

Tintagel Castle suggests that the vessels bringing such goods might have come to unload at this cove rather than on the dangerous beach of Tintagel Haven.

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Tintagel Castle came to this conclusion based upon some similarities in the structures of the early medieval elements of Tintagel Castle and the 7th-century monastery at the site of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire.

Archaeological digs by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit funded by English Heritage in 2016 and 2017 at Tintagel Castle uncovered the outlines of a palace from the 5th or 6th century, more amphora shards, and slate with writing on it, dispelling notions that no one knew how to read and write in this era following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

The manor of Tintagel Castle was among those seized by the Commonwealth government of the 1650s as Duchy of Cornwall property, returning to the Duchy upon the Restoration of 1660.

The modern day village of Tintagel Castle was known as Trevena until the 1850s when it was found convenient by the Post Office to use the name of the parish rather than the name of the village.

Tintagel Castle Footbridge received an RIBA South West Award 2021, and was an RIBA Stirling Prize 2021 finalist.

Tintagel Castle is one of English Heritage's top five attractions, with around 200,000 visitors a year and up to 3000 a day in the peak summer season.

Tintagel Castle was one of six identified by English Heritage in September 2022 as being at risk of destruction due to coastal erosion, the rate of which they said had worsened in the last few years due to rising sea levels and frequent storms.

Portions of the Tintagel Castle complex have historically fallen into the sea but by 2022, erosion had reached the front of the visitor centre, and parts of a coastal footpath and a viewing area had fallen into the sea.

Tintagel Castle goes to war against Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall, to capture Gorlois' wife Igraine, with whom Uther has fallen in love.

Gorlois defends himself against Uther's armies at his fort of Dimilioc, but he sends Igraine to stay safely within Tintagel Castle which is his most secure refuge, according to the legend and Historia Regum Britanniae.

Tintagel Castle is used as a locus for the Arthurian mythos by the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the poem Idylls of the King.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem A Legend of Tintagel Castle is another variation on the story of Lancelot and Elaine.

Tintagel Castle had been employed as the Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire from 1929 and 1934, and from 1936 was Director of the British School at Rome.

Excavations during the summers of 2016 and 2017 found the remains of various structures from the Dark Ages, including well-constructed buildings of relatively large size dated to the 5th and 6th centuries, with pottery and glass finds indicating that the people who lived at Tintagel Castle were of an upper class status, drinking wine imported from the eastern Mediterranean and using food vessels from North Africa and Gaul.