| Known to generations of tourists as King Arthur's Castle,
Tintagel Castle was in fact built by the Earls of Cornwall in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. The present day remains consist of this and of
an older Celtic monastery from approximately 500 AD. The remains straddle
both sides of a narrow strip of land, all that connects the mainland from
the peninsula. To visit the peninsula, the visitor must be prepared to negotiate
the narrow isthmus and climb a steep flight of stairs. The castle was started
by Earl Reginald, an illegitimate son of King Henry I, in about 1145 who
constructed a stockaded bank and ditch on the mainland side. His major work
was the construction of a great hall on the peninsula side, just past the
isthmus. It was about this time that Geoffrey of Monmouth visited the site
and have jumped to the conclusion that the old Celtic monastery were the
remains of the legendary Arthurian Camelot. Much of the present day ruins
can be traced to the work of Earl Richard, brother of Henry III, who greatly
expanded the site in 1236. On the mainland side he built the great gateway
and the lower and upper wards whilst on the peninsula he built the curtain
wall enclosing the inner ward and the Iron Gate. Today the castle is managed
by English Heritage. |
