Tintagel: Historical or Legendary Birthplace of King Arthur?

Welcome to another article exploring the history and legends behind King Arthur. There are many locations associated with Arthur’s life and death. Today we’re visiting the only place associated with Arthur’s birthplace: Tintagel in Cornwall.

Cornwall is the southern third, roughly, of Britain’s southwestern peninsula. The region is studded with Stone Age megaliths, and in the Bronze Age, it was a major source of tin, which was traded throughout the Mediterranean. There is little evidence that Tintagel was inhabited before the Roman era, and some evidence of activity during the Roman occupation. But what happened after the Romans left is very interesting.

Tintagel is the name of the parish, but when you say the name, it brings to mind the promontory where a ruined castle stands. It’s a dramatic site to gaze over the cliffs to the ruins on what is almost an island now that the slim neck of land connecting it to the mainland is nearly eroded away. In The Arthurian Age series, I use the name ‘Din Tagell’, Brittonic for something like “Fort with the Narrow Place”, which fits with the narrow land-bridge.

The castle that stands there today, partly on the headland and partly on the promontory, has nothing to do with the era of King Arthur. That castle was built in 1225 by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, apparently due to the connection of Tintagel to King Arthur established by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (HRB) in 1136.

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the first known recording of Arthur’s birthplace. Why did he choose Tintagel? He claims to have not made up the HRB, but to have compiled it from other sources, namely an “ancient book in the British language”. That book, if it ever existed, is lost, but Geoffrey certainly had some of the same information that is recorded in earlier writings, such as by Gildas and Nennius. Some source must have given Tintagel as Arthur’s birthplace. Why?

Because in Geoffrey’s time, nothing would have been visible on Tintagel to suggest it had ever been a Dark Age fortress. This is not surprising, because unlike Richard’s stone and mortar castle, the fortresses of the Britons in Arthur’s time were made of ditches, timber, and un-mortared stone. The buildings would have been of timber or wattle-and-daub, with stacked stone foundations and thatched roofs. These would not have withstood the stormy ravages of more than 500 years between Arthur’s era and Geoffrey’s.

In the 1930’s, the archaeologist Ralegh Radford excavated areas of Tintagel. He found evidence that Tintagel had been inhabited in the Arthurian Age, but determined that it was a Celtic Christian monastery and not any sort of Dark Age fortress. Those who were adamant that Arthur was a myth rejoiced in their vindication. But then it was found that Radford was wrong.

A fire on the promontory in the 1980’s revealed the foundations of many more buildings. An inscribed piece of slate called the Artognou Stone was found showing that Latin literacy was still in practice in the 6th century. And in 2016, new excavations found that the Tintagel was not a monastery. They discovered that, between the fifth and seventh centuries, Tintagel was occupied by a large number of people who had access to vast amounts of Roman luxury goods from as far away as the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. Tintagel boasts the greatest amount of expensive Roman pottery and glass from this era to be found anywhere else in Britain, such as the proposed site of Camelot at South Cadbury Castle.

In the mid-fifth century, when Arthur would have lived, Tintagel was a royal residence. The only explanation for Geoffrey of Monmouth to have known this is that he had access to written or oral traditions that pre-dated his HRB.

Tintagel would be an ideal site for a stronghold. First, attackers would have to get past the fortification guarding access to the promontory. Then the narrow isthmus from the mainland to the peninsula would have been very easy to defend. A siege would be difficult to maintain, as the promontory had a fresh water source, and could easily be resupplied by ship in the sheltered cove on the north side of the isthmus. There is no evidence that any battles were fought there, and it appears to have been abandoned in the 7th century. This may have been due to the plagues that ravaged Britain in those times.

With Tintagel established as a properly historical site, was Arthur born there? Geoffrey says he was conceived there, but nothing more. There doesn’t seem to be anything else linking Arthur to the place, and his homes and fortresses are all said to be different locations, from Celliwig to Camelot. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t conceived and born at Tintagel. In fact, if you’ve read The Retreat to Avalon or The Strife of Camlann, you’ll see the hints of a plausible explanation. Just wait until the third book, Three Wicked Revelations comes out and you’ll get the whole picture.

Tintagel was one of the most magical places we’ve visited in Britain. I hope you get a chance to visit someday, and thanks for visiting here, today. As always, I love to hear from you in the comments or by using the “Contact” option. Until next time!