Tintagel Castle and the legend of King Arthur
On the first Sunday in October and we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. It was such a lovely day we decided to make the most of it so after breakfast Robert, Pebbles and I set off for Tintagel in the car. It took just 54 minutes door to door, we parked in King Arthurs Car Park, which had plenty of spaces. As an unexpected bonus If you spent £20.00 in the King Arthur pub you got a £1.00 off your bill on the presentation of your parking coupon!
We walked to the Tintagel Castle offices which were just a few minutes from the car park. We purchased our tickets and set off down a steep hill. At the bottom we enjoyed a well earned coffee and a piece of cake at the cafe.
If you don't fancy the walk you can grab a lift with the official English Heritage Land Rover for a small charge, dogs can get a lift too.
In August 2019 a new £4m footbridge linking Tintagel Castle to the mainland was opened to the public for the first time, so it was interesting to see it for ourselves.
A little bit about the bridge
Ney & Partners Civil Engineers and William Matthews Associates were selected to design and build the bridge.
Their task was to create a bridge specifically tailored to link Tintagel Castle to the mainland, whilst harmonising with the iconic coastal landscape.
The bridge is paved with Cornish Delabole slate, with stainless steel balustrades fitted along its length and complemented by Oak handrails.
The balustrades have been designed to be so fine that, when viewed from a distance, they disappear against the sky.
The bridge was constructed using a local steel fabrication company in Plymouth, Underhill Engineering. Using steel to construct the bridge meant that the structure would be strong but slender, helping to minimalise the impact on the landscape. It was decided to use Cornish Delabole slate as it is a feature of the North Cornwall landscape. Between 90,000-100,000 slates were used in the construction of the bridge, read that bit somewhere, I didn't count them!
After our mid morning snack, we climbed up the steps to reach the newly built foot bridge. It was very impressive. We then climbed up a few more steps until we got to the top, a lovely flat area where there are plenty of places to sit on the rocks to admire and the spectacular blue skies and turquoise sea. In addition to the lovely views there was an impressive 8-foot tall bronze sculpture inspired by the legends of King Arthur.
There were signs dotted all around explaining what you were looking at and providing information about the history and the myths about that location. Adults and children alike appeared interested in what they were reading
We sat for sometime just looking at the beautiful rugged North Cornwall coastline, watching and listening to the large waves crashing onto the rocks below and taking in the sea air.
The Old versus The New, just look at all those steps
Tintagel Old Post Office is a 14th-century stone house, which is now owned by the National Trust, a quaint little building on the left hand side of the road when heading for the castle
After nearly three house ambling around we rewarded ourselves with a lovely snack at King Arthurs cafe. We enjoyed a panini with salad a cup of tea and an ice-cream to finish!
King Arthurs cafe are happy to accept well behaved dogs but all dogs must sit under your table as space is limited.
The village of Tintagel itself is worth a visit with plenty of pubs, cafe’s and ice-cream shops, not to mention all the gift shops selling everything from a plastic King Arthurs Sword to a shell, a range of gifts and souvenirs.
Tintagel is close to three other interesting towns, Boscastle, Bude and Padstow. Each town is worth a visit in its own right, I am sure I will be writing about each of them soon.
General information
Access:- I did feel that you need to be reasonably fit to be able to fully benefit from your visit as there a lot of steep steps to tackle. Personally I wouldn't have thought that the site would be suitable for buggies, wheelchairs or people with certain mobility problems. As I said earlier in the blog there is a Land Rover that takes you up and down the main hill but it doesn't take you as far as the beginning of the bridge.
Suitable for children YES, under close supervision
Suitable for Dogs YES, on leads
Tintagel Castle - English Heritage
Tintagel Post Office - National Trust
