Birmingham to Tintagel Castle

January 30th, 2007

What:: Tintagel Castle and surrounding historical ruins
Where:: Tintagel, Corwall, South East Coast of England
Cost:: £4.50 per adult
Rating:: Leevi: 8/10
Sarah: 8.5/10

Day one of our four day holiday experiencing the South East of England saw Sarah and I departing our West Midlands base in Solihull in the early hours of Saturday morning and heading to Penzance/Lands End via Tintagel Castle. This would prove to be one of our longest period on the road covering over 300 miles (482.8032kms).

Our trip to Penzance/Lands End was broken up a) by short bathroom stops and b) by the extended exploration of Tintagel Castle and its surrounding historical grounds. As you may or may not know Tintagel Castle is the alleged home of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Of course there could not be a mention of King Arthur and Tintagel Castle without an associated myth about Merlin the Magician. In Tintagels local folklore Merlin also occupied a cave which is protected by the crashing azure waves of the Atlantic Ocean. It is said that the result of his spells and magic potions extended beyond the caves mouth in the form of white mist which can still be seen today.

Historically faithful or not Tintagel Castle deserves the associated ‘hype’ it receives. The castle is split into two main sections each precariously perched on a piece of beautiful and treacherous cliff face overlooking the ocean. Such is the hazardous position of the castle that soon after the completion of one section a piece of cliff face gave way plunging part of the wall into the sea.

For a small fee ( £4.50 ) we freely explored the ruins of the castle, cliff face and small pebble beaches. The views from on top of the cliff looking back to the modern Tintagel where amazing. After a couple of hours we headed back down to Tintagels high street and enjoyed a well deserved vegetable Cornish pastie and some curry lunch left overs.

With the majority of our first days leg complete it was a short trip to Penzance, Lands End and Mousehole.