Mystical Britain

Tintagel Castle

In August, the charity English Heritage succeeded in completing a miracle worthy of an Arthurian legend. The two halves of Tintagel Castle, separated by a 190-foot gorge, have finally been reunited after more than 500 years.

The narrow strip of land that once connected the 13th-century gatehouse with the main courtyard on the headland had long since eroded away, so it has taken the installation of a jaw-dropping suspended footbridge to reconnect the two. The castle’s old Cornish name even makes reference to the precarious path, with “Din Tagell” apparently translating as “the Fortress of the Narrow Entrance”.

Tintagel is inextricably linked with the legend of King Arthur, after Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing in the 12th century, claimed the monarch had been conceived here. And it was this claim that almost