The Cornish coastline. 400 miles of rocky  coves, windswept headlands, rolling sanddunes  

and rugged granite cliffs, all engaged in  a perpetual battle with Atlantic brawls.  

On a headland on Cornwall's north coast  stands Tintagel Castle, a site that has  

become inextricably linked to a legendary figure  who continues to dominate England's mythical past.  

Visitors to these striking ruins are invited to  leave the mainland behind by crossing a footbridge  

peering over into the natural chasm below before  entering a medieval world of myth and magic.

This is a castle that really owes its existence  to a myth. Tintagel was named in Geoffrey of  

Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain,  written in the middle of the 12th century,  

as the place where King Arthur was conceived  and this came about through a mixture of sorcery  

and through clever words and it  inspired Richard the Earl of Cornwall  

to build a castle here in the early part of  the 13th century. King Arthur would have been  

something of a role model to those growing up in  royal and noble households in the 13th century.  

In building a castle here at Tintagel  Richard was clearly expressing his commitment  

to the chivalric ideals of the time that  could be seen as embodied by King Arthur.

The castle itself was used for a number of  purposes including a prison but it was often  

in ruins and then sured up again and then in  ruins. By the early 17th century it was appear  

as if the land bridge connecting the two parts  of the castle had been eroded away and anybody  

who wanted to gain access to the castle had to  climb down and back up the precipitous cliffs.

These ruins with their mythical  origins might seem ancient to us  

but if we look deeper back into the  past we discover clues about this  

site that relate to lives lived here many  centuries before this castle was built.

Long before the castle of Earl Richard, Tintagel  was occupied. There really isn't much evidence for  

prehistoric or Roman occupation, but the fact that  there isn't evidence does not necessarily mean  

that people were not here at that time.  But during the early medieval period,  

the 5th to 7th centuries, or the 'dark ages', we  know that Tintagel was occupied. Far from being  

a 'dark age' one writer has suggested that  this period is really a Cornish Golden Age.  

The evidence suggests that the people living in  and trading from Tintagel were extremely well  

connected and were enjoying some of the  finest things in life such as olive oil,  

wine and high status tablewares and we  need to bear in mind that this trade  

might also have meant that they would have met  people from these far-off places so there's this  

idea of diverse languages and diverse  traditions mixing at this place. This was  

a place that was characterised by imports,  exchange and international connections.

In gentle compliment of the grandeur of Tintagel  Castle is an iconic slice of Cornish history.  

Often thought of as a Cornish anthem, Sweet  Nightingale. It's sung for us by the wonderful  

Lisa Knapp. Affirming Cornwall's international  stature, this song isn't actually local at all:  

it's a German import brought back to the  south west of England by Cornish miners  

who must have heard this beautiful tale while  working in German tin mines in the 1800s.  

And neither is the nightingale local. They  are migrant birds flying to Africa each year  

and ironically have never actually  made it as far west as Cornwall.  

But then again, there was probably  no King Arthur there either.