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 Dwight
Peck's personal Web site
It's
October 2004 -- so it's time for another visit to Devon and Cornwall
Tintagel
Castle or what's left of it
Here's
Tintagel and a quick glance around Old King Arthur's original old castle. You
may not find this tangibly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a
good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught
up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go. 
Legendary
King Arthur's Castle. Well, the 19th century King Arthur's Castle Hotel, rather,
or Camelot Castle Hotel. But the photograph's been taken from King Arthur's real
original castle just next door, here . . . 
Or
what's left of it!!
After a period as a Roman settlement and military outpost, Tintagel was probably
a trading settlement of Celtic kings during the 5th and 6th centuries. Good defensive
location, way up there on that cliffy narrow headland, nice beach below (not many
of those along this coast).
Legend
has it that one of these venerable Celtic kings was King Mark, whose nephew Tristan
fell in love with Yseult/Isolde. Well, that's all well and good, and maybe King
Arthur really did happen along later (there are about fifteen "Merlin's Caves"
eroded through the coastal cliffs nearby), but it was in the 13th century that
the real verifiable castle-building got under way, directed by Richard Earl of
Cornwall (1209–1272), second son of King John of England and brother of Henry
III, and a genuine Middle Ages superthug who once concluded a Crusades treaty
with the Sultan of Egypt! (1241) -- the stuff of legends, like Jessica Lynch,
Dan Rather, and Michael Jackson. Here's
Kristin, standing in Earl Richard's ruined bathroom without even having been asked,
and then reading about it on an historical plaque. 
Exceptional
castle-works, but not a lot of it left. Sic transit gloria mundi, eh? Built the
whole ruddy thing, and never needed it . . . and now this is what's left. 
Richard
Earl of Cornwall, though a notorious wastrel, equally illiterate, and an über-thug
at heart, might have made a better US president than the present one. He had the
violence and mayhem down pat and he seems to have known how to work with the eccentric
Christians, but would his "chivalric code" have doomed him in modern
Washington D.C.? 
Kristin,
amid what's left of Earl Richard's boudoir, scowls for the camera. (This is actually
very near the recently uncovered remains of 5th century habitations.) 
The
coastline from Earl Richard of Cornwall's favorite hideout. 
Several
"Merlin's caves" below the Castle of Tintagel . . . beckoning. 
Kristin
leaves the old Earl to his memories, and his castle of Tintagel (and King Arthur's
as well, according to Alfred Lord Tennyson anyway), and heads for Merlin's caves. 
Kristin
bound for several of Merlin's Caves, 18 October 2005. 
Lovely
Kristin prepares to dart into Merlin's Caves before the tide comes in. Kristin
(left) and Dwight (right) pose within (left) and without (right) one of Merlin's
many magical caves. 
The
view back from Merlin's hide-out to what's left of old Richard's fastnesses. 
Kristin,
reluctant to leave.
| Cornwall
and Devon, October 2005 | | | |
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Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, Dwight
Peck at  .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 11 March 2005, revised 19 September 2008.
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