Tintagel

The name of a village in north Cornwall. The village and the nearby castle are associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur and his knights. Tintagel Castle is said by Geoffrey of Monmouth to have been the place were Arthur was conceived, and Tennyson mentions it as Arthur's birthplace. In later legends it becomes the castle of Mark of Cornwall, the uncle of Tristan.

The ruins of the castle at Tintagel date to the thirteenth century; it was built by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1233 to establish a connection with the Arthurian legends. The site was possibly a Roman settlement or cliff-fort before that (third or fourth century CE).

Until the mid-nineteenth century the village was known as Trevena (Cornish: Tre war Venydh), but the headland was known as Tintagel long before that.