Is This the Birthplace of the Legendary King Arthur?

This time we're entering the magical world of Cornwall's Tintagel Castle, the place where that British icon King Arthur was said to have been conceived. Tintagel Castle is perched high on a headland overlooking the beautiful north coast of Cornwall, an ancient port below, and the wide sea beyond. It feels like a fairy tale, a place fit for kings, mystery and myth. The legend of King Arthur has been stitched through the British story for close on 1,500 years. The tale of a boy who became king when he pulled a sword from the stone. The hero who defended these islands against invaders and then together with his trusty sword Excalibur, his magician Merlin and his knights of the round table went to fight dragons and seek the Holy Grail. We all think we know the stories of Arthur, but where do they come from? Are they pure fantasy or could they be based on something that really happened here at Tintagel? The work that really put Arthur on the map was this one. It was written 900 years ago by a Welsh cleric called Geoffrey of Monmouth and he described it as a history of the kings of Britain. It became incredibly popular really quickly and sold all the way around Europe and it's this book that tells us that Arthur was conceived here at Tintagel. If those stories are to be believed then everything began here. There's such a power to that story, it's persisted all this time, it's amazing isn't it? There's one of the earliest versions has Arthur slaying 940 men single-handedly, so you know you have to take it with a fairly huge dose of salt. But it's not unusual for these medieval histories to weave in things that we would consider now pure fantasy. And it's very important to remember that. I mean one of the earliest accounts actually puts Arthur here in Tintagel written by a man called Geoffrey of Monmouth and he tells this story and he says that Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, really fancied this woman called Igraine and so he got Merlin to sort of allow him to shapeshift so he could steal into her room and have his wicked way with her and Arthur was conceived at Tintagel. But for his audience that bit of magic would be perfectly acceptable because you know this is the 12th century, this is a time when people believed in sorcery and witchcraft and superstition. But don't be fooled, in our hunt for King Arthur, the castle itself is one giant red herring. Its stone structure tells us that it was actually built in later medieval times, centuries after Arthur was supposedly conceived. So it does beg the question, why did Geoffrey choose to base his account here at Tintagel? I mean was he just sticking a pin in the map or what? We really need some more hard evidence. A story can stand on its own but with history you have to have context. With clear skies and light winds it's the perfect weather for getting the Octocopter up in the air so that we can get a bird's eye view of this ancient site. This tiny copter gives us incredibly clear aerial shots as it swoops across the land. So Ben is able to see details and shapes in the landscape that just aren't visible from the ground and he can start to look for evidence of the real place that some say 1,500 years ago was home to a king called Arthur. God look at that, hey? Starting with the castle, Ben has enlisted the help of Matt Ward, the English heritage warden here at Tintagel. Look at those folk down there wandering up the path about to be invaded. From this angle it looks like there are two sets of buildings but what's actually happened is that centuries of erosion have now almost separated the headland from the mainland splitting the castle in two. So that's what you would call the castle. It's those courtyard enclosed spaces both on the island and on the mainland. It's just that bit around the construction. But you've got to imagine that the land was at the height of the courtyards when it was... So a rockfall has reduced it basically. I think sometime in the 15th century. Yeah, okay. So now it makes sense as a whole, this is not one castle on this bit of land and one castle on another, it was a complete castle. That's right. When you see it from this angle, when you're looking at it, the ruggedness of the cliffs and everything, you can really see why people over the centuries have written about the place. It's the sort of place where a legend has to be born. From the ground, the castle looks like it would have been pretty impenetrable. But from the sky, Ben can see that there is something a bit fishy. Was it built as a serious castle at all? There's something a little bit odd about it. It doesn't look like any sort of castle I've seen elsewhere. I mean, the other thing is from above, you can see those walls. I mean, they're not great thick walls. Where's the interval towers? Where are the round towers? Where are the D-shaped towers? All these bits of military architecture that should be there, they're not there. Things don't look much more convincing when Ben moves down to the headland. This is really strange because most medieval castles have a strategic or military reason for being where they are. I mean, it's not as if it isn't a defensible site because it is, you know, and it's sort of, it's consciously on the high bits and on the neck of land. I mean, this isn't protecting an important river crossing. There's no main road here. We know that when this castle was built, the headland wasn't used as a port. So if this building isn't a stronghold or defending something like a harbour, what was the point of it? Matt can give us an answer. I mean, it was built in 1236 by Earl Richard of Cornwall and he built a castle here because he wanted a castle on what he thought was King Arthur's birthplace to boost his power by association with the legends of King Arthur. Are you saying it's a bit more sort of showy than being a serious piece of military engineering? I think it's completely showy. The walls would have been rendered and it would have been lime washed so you've got this shimmering huge fortress on the headland but actually if you opened the door and went inside, it's just a wall facade. So a fantasy castle? Yeah, a fantasy castle, almost like a holiday cottage. So basically, this castle is a medieval vanity project. A breathtaking piece of visual theatre created so that Richard, Earl of Cornwall, could bask in the reflected glory of the King Arthur legend. But the question is, if this castle didn't exist at the time of Arthur's story, can we find anything here that did? Ben's relaunched his octocopter to look for features that date back to the right era. And from the air, he can see there is an earlier story to be told. This is intriguing, look. You see this line running down here and it's picked out by shadows. This is a great cut into the hillside. This is definitely made by people. It's a great ditch and the aerial view picks it out beautifully with the shadows in it. I mean, it's obviously man-made. That's a great thing, isn't it? When you see a straight line in a landscape, you know somebody's been there with a shovel. It's difficult to get a sense of that on the ground. But from above, it's completely obvious. And there's other bits of bank and earthwork out here. Again, you know, these are probably Dark Age, 5th, 6th, 7th century, long before the castle was built. Well, that's interesting, because that's exactly the time that the stories of Arthur start to circulate. We know that, you know, that's when these tales begin to be shared. And if we're looking for a fort of that period, this is the sort of defensive earthwork that we'd expect. Who or what is that defending? So, it looks like there was a fort here during the time that Arthur was said to have lived. The later medieval castle was plonked right on the same site a few hundred years afterwards. And Ben's eye in the sky is about to show us more evidence that a serious operation was in play here in the time of Arthur's story. We're on the trail of King Arthur, searching for evidence that helps us to sift some facts from all the myth and fantasy. Legend has it that the boy king was conceived here at Tintagel. But this imposing castle was built many years after Arthur is said to have lived. Our aerial shots have revealed that it may have been constructed on the site of a fort that does date to the right era. So Ben's going to show us what that fort would have been defending. He's moved his search further out across the headland. It's here that he can see the remains of buildings. The light greystone walls are too recent, but the grass-covered walls right next to them date back to the time of Arthur's story. And that's just the start. Ben can see other lumps and bumps in the long grass that suggest there are many, many more buildings still hidden on this rocky outcrop. You're really starting to pick out the early medieval or dark age remains, aren't you? Yeah. So they're from about 450 to 700. Completely different shape and pattern to it all. Oh, look at that. Actually, I can see dozens of these buildings dotted, particularly on this north side of the headland. That's it. I mean, there's about 50 that they've excavated and there's about another 100 on the top of the island that's never been excavated. So 150 buildings in total. That is a sizable community, isn't it? If they're all occupied at the same time, what are we talking about? Several hundred people? There's got to be several hundred people living up here, yeah. But imagine it, though. People sitting around fires, there's chatting, there's laughter, there's music. What an exciting place to be. Because these aren't just foundations, they're not just here by accident. These are about people and people's lives, aren't they? That's right, yeah. This settlement was only discovered in the 1980s after a huge fire destroyed the vegetation, concealing it. And when archaeologists excavated a few of these buildings, they found they were around 1,500 years old. What the archaeologists discovered here is unlike anything else ever found in the British Isles. It's hard evidence that has completely rewritten Tintagel's story. They discovered compelling evidence that this was once a centre of truly enormous wealth. The kind of place you'd expect to find a powerful ruler, perhaps someone big enough to inspire the legend of King Arthur. When just a fraction of the site was excavated, thousands of fragments of exotic 6th century pottery were unearthed, more than have been found anywhere else in Western Europe. Stored at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro, they tell us that Tintagel was a major centre for international trade. This is a Fossean red slipware which comes from the west coast of Turkey. Yeah, what's modern day Turkey? And it's travelled all the way to Tintagel. And what's more, with these red slipwares, which are high status wares, they changed in fashion. So I can actually look at that rim and say, with plus or minus 25 years, that this dates from roughly about 550 AD. That's interesting because 550 AD, you're right at the time when the Byzantine Empire is at its peak. The city that we now call Istanbul was Constantinople, and before that was Byzantium. That's when it's in its real heyday, isn't it? Absolutely, and that's when we think the main trade was coming out. An incredible 90% of the fragments found at Tintagel were of Mediterranean origin, from North Africa, Anatolia, the Middle East, and had travelled over 3,000 miles by sea to this dramatic headland. Tintagel was connected via the oceans to an exciting wider world, a world where seasoned sailors told tales of far-off lands, fearsome warriors, sea monsters and dragons. And these sailors weren't just bringing in fables with their tableware. The dig also uncovered fragments with religious significance. We actually have a stamp of a cross. Look at that, beautiful. So this is close on 1,500 years old? Yes, yes. And this is probably one of the earliest evidences of Christianity in Cornwall, or at least a connection with Christianity. But again, this ties directly to those stories of Arthur, because how he's always portrayed as this Christian knight fighting off barbarians and pavers. Yes, yes. If only that could speak, we would get the truth of Tintagel. The archaeological evidence paints a vivid picture of life here at the time when King Arthur was meant to have lived. Tintagel would have been a grand, exotic warehouse, a hub of international trade, full of fabulous foreign goods and, one imagines, all sorts of imported stories of sorcery and daring do. The sort of stories that crop up in the many retellings of the Arthurian legend. But why here? Well, in the summer months, boats could safely dock here from across the known world. And the reason they would risk life and limb to travel thousands of miles? It's all to do with Cornwall's most prized export, tin. There's usually a reason why a particular location becomes this kind of fulcrum for stories. So do you think it is the tin trade around here? I think it has to be the tin trade. And that in itself is the most important thing about it, in that while the general southwest region is big for tin, Tintagel itself is not. So the person who can bring tin in order to trade from this site must be in command of a large part of the southwest of Britain. And we shouldn't just think of tin as just kind of any old raw material. I mean, it almost had a magical quality then, didn't it? Because with tin you can make bronze and with bronze you can make coinage, you can make weapons. So it's a really, really precious commodity from this part of the world. Precious commodity that really puts Britain on the map among Mediterranean people. And whoever is in charge of that is seriously powerful. Yes, seriously powerful. 1,500 years ago, this place would have been buzzing with life, trading the most precious objects and materials on the planet right across the known world. So could it be that distant memories of golden age Tintagel gave rise to all those stories of Arthur and his magical court? The legend of King Arthur may not be true, but a potent, privileged, well-connected warrior king is a possibility. Whoever ruled this land back in the 6th century was a showman, someone who certainly knew how to impress and command his people. His speeches were delivered from a place of natural theatre known as the King's Footprint. OK, so here it is. This is the footprint. Oh, yes. So it is quite significant. I mean, it's on the highest point of the island and they have found them. They found this one here and they found them up at sites in Scotland and they have a real significance, a real ceremonial purpose. So the chieftain puts his foot in it and he's got his people in front of him and then the headland behind. Ben is now standing where 1,500 years ago a king would have addressed his people. The horizon behind him wouldn't have revealed a church but the burial ground of his ancestors. The perfect setting for a king to celebrate his past and look to the future. So he sticks his foot in here, he addresses all his subjects and this is quite a theatrical location. Perhaps the king of Tintagel really did stand on this exact spot. But was it Arthur? In fact, is there any evidence that anyone called Arthur was here at all? Well, here's a tantalising clue. Incredibly, it's a 1,500-year-old piece of graffiti from an old drain cover at Tintagel. Paternus or paterne. Colliavus and then Atenu. Atenu? I mean, that's not so far from Arthur, is it? No, it's certainly the same word derivation. It's from the Botanic meaning bear. And how can you date it? The odd a's, aren't they? Yes, we can actually tell the date of the artefact by the style of lettering. If you look carefully at the A, say on Atenu, it's got this strange V shape, diamond shape to it. And that is specific to the 6th century. Well, there we are. But you see, this is one of those brilliant things where it's almost as if myths and legends sometimes give us history by accident, so they tell us that there was an Arthur here. And actually we know in the archaeology there was, even if he was a recalcitrant vandal rather than a heroic king. And the other thing too, and this is one of the aspects about archaeology alike, this is one of the few examples where you get a direct contact with the person himself, because these are in three different handwritings. Yes. So you've not only got their names, but you've also got their handwriting too, and that is direct connection with the person itself. So, it looks like we can be pretty sure that the name Atenu was used at Tintagel. As it passed down through the generations and into Latin, then English, did Atenu become Arthur? Well, we now know that this was an exceptional place. There's no question about it. It would have been known as an exceptional place at the time and for a good period of time afterwards. And in a way, it would be strange if there weren't legends surrounding it. It would be strange if stories didn't grow up around it. It is a great site and it's likely that great stories are going to be told about it. We can't say if a King Arthur was ever here, but what we have found is that Tintagel was a cosmopolitan, crucially important seat of wealth and power. The kind of place, perhaps, where you'd find a king big enough to inspire a legend. The story of one of our greatest but most mysterious national heroes. This place might not be the enchanted home of Arthur, Merlin and his friends, but it does have its own special kind of magic, because it reminds us that our landscape can hold on to powerful secrets for hundreds and hundreds of years. And it also tells us that we shouldn't just dismiss legend. If we dig that little bit deeper, then fantasy can sometimes lead us to fascinating, hard historical facts.