Tintagel: King Arthur's Castle?
Did King Arthur really live at Tintagel? This clifftop castle in Cornwall has been linked to legends of the famous ruler for hundreds of years – but is there any truth to the stories?
We've looked at the evidence to find out who really lived here, what life was like at this site in the past, and find out what archaeological discoveries can tell us about life in Cornwall after the Romans left.
Lighting up the Dark Ages
We don’t have many written historical sources from this time, and so it used to be called the Dark Ages. But this isn’t a good name because archaeology has shown us this wasn’t a ‘dark’ age at all! People were writing in Latin, importing goods from the Mediterranean, and had interesting lives. We just have to dig a bit deeper to find out about them.
Tintagel was a coastal trading town. At this time, Anglo-Saxon people were arriving in other parts of southern Britain, bringing their ideas, religion and language, but in south-west Britain, people probably continued to use a Celtic language, which later evolved into Cornish and Welsh. They also probably continued to practise the Christian faith introduced by the Romans.
Early medieval life at Tintagel
From about AD 450 until about AD 650, Tintagel was a prosperous and important site, trading with people in the Mediterranean. The island was covered with many small rectangular buildings – some of these are still visible today.
Because the settlement was connected to the mainland only by a narrow neck of land, it could be easily defended. It had excellent views over the sea, and a large protective bank and ditch.
Tintagel was likely to have been a stronghold of the rulers of Devon and Cornwall, which was then called Dumnonia. At this time, kings travelled from place to place within their lands, so this would have been one of many royal sites in Devon and Cornwall.
Tap the image windows on the illustration of Tintagel below to find out more about what life was like there in about AD 700.
Digging deeper
The remains of the early medieval town at Tintagel have been mapped by looking carefully at the humps and bumps, or earthworks, of the buildings. In the summer of 1983, a fire burned the grass off of part of the site and revealed more of the building walls, and archaeology has helped to uncover some of the mysteries of life at Tintagel in the past. Here are some of the things we know about the site based on these discoveries.
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Fit for a king
In the 5th and 6th centuries, there was a large town at Tintagel. It could have been a place where the kings of south-west Britain sometimes stayed, because luxury objects including glass drinking cups and decorated plates have been found here. It was also easy to defend, with a very narrow piece of land joining the settlement to the mainland.
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Artognou was here!
In 1998, archaeologists found a piece of slate at Tintagel with Latin writing on it (pictured). Some people called Artognou, Coliavus and Paternus had scratched their names on it, meaning this could be graffiti from the 6th century! The stone had been later used as a cover for a drain, but the inscriptions can still be seen. Can you spot the three names?
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Exotic Tastes
People living at Tintagel were importing luxury items, including exotic foods, in exchange for local Cornish goods like tin, furs and maybe even slaves. We know this because hundreds of pieces of large storage jars called amphorae have been found. They were made in places around the Mediterranean Sea, and probably contained olive oil, wine and fish sauce.
Fact or fiction?
For a long time, Tintagel Castle has been associated with the legend of King Arthur and his round table. No one knows whether the stories about him were based on a real man, or whether he was just a fictional character. There are only a couple of historical records that refer to an Arthur who was a battle leader in the 5th or 6th century.
In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a book called The History of the Kings of Britain. It contains the story of King Arthur, and later versions of it became very popular. However, because Geoffrey’s book was a mixture of facts and things he made up, it’s difficult to be certain about which parts of the story he invented. Geoffrey was probably inspired by the stories and ruins of the royal site at Tintagel to include it as King Arthur’s castle – starting this site’s association with the famous legend.
The story of King Arthur
Find out more about the legend of King Arthur in these videos.
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Storytime: Arthur and Tintagel
Listen as the imprisoned Thomas Mallory narrates the tale of how the legendary King Arthur was supposedly born in Tintagel Castle atop a rocky headland in Cornwall, watched over by the mystical, magical Merlin.
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Tintagel Castle and the legend of King Arthur
Find out more about the legend of King Arthur in this video from our History at Home Live! series. In this episode, Ben was joined by expert guest Jeremy Ashbee, to explore Tintagel Castle and its famous tale.
