I’m just having a moment to sit down after mowing the lawn. Having got home yesterday afternoon, we’ve come back to quite a wild garden because, apparently, the Wirral has had a lot of rain last week. It just shows how lucky we were on our trip down south that, aside from a little sprinkling on the previously Sunday at Carn Euny, we had a wonderfully dry, warm week. The only day there was any concentrated amounts of the wet stuff was during our drive out of Cornwall, which was fine. Our final, impromptu port of call on the way out, however, did become a damp squib, in more ways than one.
Tintagel, as a name, conjures up the magic of Merlin and the Arthurian legends for me. Ever since childhood I have loved those tales of chivalry and sorcery, the round table and the sword in the stone. We weren’t driving back home in one fell swoop but staying at my friend Paul’s, just outside of Bristol, so I figured, despite the rain, we could swing by the place on our way.
Hmmm.
Granted the weather didn’t help. The rain was intermittent but the gaps were small. The village of Tintagel is full of cafés, which were okay, and shops selling you loads of new age crystal tat, which were tedious. If you’re really into crystals then you probably wouldn’t spend time in these shops as they are mass-produced rubbish. Because of the rain and the possibility of the terrain being a bit slippery, Anne decided to stay in the village while I went to the castle.
So apparently, up to the sixth century, there were probably some wealthy local rulers living on the grounds of this rocky outcrop. Then, in the thirteenth century, a new castle was built by Richard, son of King John, in order to capitalise on the Arthurian myths that were already circulating, thanks mainly to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the British Kings’. So Arthur may have been one of these post-Roman local rulers pitting his wits against the incoming Angles, Saxons, Jutes etc, but there is no evidence of him, other than ‘histories’ written at least three hundred years after the time. The records that were closer to that period don’t mention him at all.
There’s no harm, though in cashing in on a myth, and if people are going to come, you may as well earn a crust from them. But. £18.10 per person to see some broken stone walls where a castle once was and a statue? It is a pretty cool statue but still. Daylight bleeding robbery.
I wouldn’t have paid except we’d taken quite a big detour to get here, in the rain, and I know I should have researched it all before but I didn’t. So I paid, and then I did a walk/jog onto the grounds, and took a few pics in the mizzle, and then walked/jogged back. Didn’t even see Merlin’s Cave – actually just a regular cave – because the tide was coming in. At least I got a little bit of hill training in. It was an impressive statue, reminded me of the Ring Wraiths in The Lord of the Rings, but he could have been a bit taller and more imposing.
If you go to Cornwall, and don’t have English Heritage membership, I wouldn’t bother going. Unless you like cheap crystals.
theleadlesspencil 