The final road trip of our Cornish holiday began with a 42 mile drive up to the north coast, to a little village called Tintagel.
We parked at King Arthur’s car park behind King Arthur’s Arms Inn. As we exited the car, we tested out Brendan’s walkie-talkies and were soon criticised by a real-life Karen, who complained loudly that we should be talking to each other like normal people. She walked away when I called her a Karen over the walkie-talkie.
The plan was to have breakfast at the King Arthur’s Arms Inn but they weren’t serving food yet, so we wandered up the street and found a little cafe called Charlie’s.
It was another TOG24 day and Brendan wanted to get some candid photos of us living our best life.
You can tell Brendan is the influencer and works with models on a regular basis. It just comes naturally to him.
I went for eggs Benedict with crab meat. It was banging. Taras and Andy also enjoyed it.
After breakfast we headed over to the entrance to Tintagel Castle, where the mythical King Arthur was conceived. According to legend, Arthur’s father King Uther Pendragon was disguised by Merlin’s magic to look like Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, so that he could enter Tintagel and impregnate the Duke’s wife, Igraine. Nowadays we would know this as “rape”.
The castle is owned by Prince Charles and run by English Heritage, and it was these English Heritage workers that sadly informed us that we had to book ahead to get into the castle, and that there were no available spaces left today. Curse these covid times.
With the castle now closed to us, we headed down to the cove. It was a fairly steep descent and I couldn’t wait to do the return trip uphill. We could still look at it from outside, and Merlin’s Cave was open to the public.
We were disappointed to see that the tide was in, and Merlin’s Cave was only accessible to those who didn’t mind getting wet.
Over a thousand years ago, the headland was connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land that has long since collapsed into the sea. In 2019, the steel bridge was opened to reunite both sides of the castle. It’s a shame we couldn’t get in, but it’s a reminder to BOOK AHEAD.
We walked over to the neighbouring headland known as Barra’s Nose, which offered more views of Tintagel Castle, Merlin’s Cave, and a hotel built in 1899 known as Camelot Castle.
We walked until there was no more land left to walk.
Brendan, Andy and Taras got their cameras out.
Even Joel was getting in on the action.
As the shoot progressed, the sky cleared and made the scenery look more summery.
The tide was also going out, and we noticed people were starting to enter Merlin’s Cave. So we headed down there.
It was already full of posing people. One woman braved the water and walked really far in, nearly out the other side. Ever the opportunist, Brendan asked her to stay still so he could snap her.
Afterwards, I went to the water’s edge and enjoyed some stone skimming.
There were lots of good skimming stones and I had a good time. After Joel embarrassed me in a game of See-Who-Can-Throw-Stones-And-Hit-The-Rocky-Island, we joined the others at a crack in the cliff for some band photos.
Four sick lads ft. Taras losing his footing.
We left the beach and headed for the shop and exhibition centre. We had to queue to get in cos of covid, but the lady on the door was offering people the chance to try that most ancient of tipples, mead. We couldn’t say no, could we?
Inside we learned more about Tintagel Castle, which was nice seeing as we never got to go in Tintagel Castle.
We also came across some miniature versions of the famous King Arthur statue. Our failure to get into the castle had gutted Brendan cos he wanted a photo of/with it.
For now, this will have to do.
Back up the Castle Road we walked. If you are old or lazy, you can pay for a jeep to drive you back to the top. I considered it but I’d just missed the latest ride. Aching calves it is then!
Still not content with our fill of Arthurian legend, we headed to King Arthur’s Great Halls.
For £5 you can enter the Halls and indulge yourself with Arthurian artwork and a disembodied voice telling stories from the walls.
The Cornish guy behind the desk (btw, his was the first Cornish accent I’d heard all holiday – are they dying out or something?) told us we were extremely lucky to have the place entirely to ourselves. Usually the Halls are swarming with Arthurian enthusiasts – but today we could make it our own private photo studio.
The Roundtable circa 2021, complete with antibacterial handwash.
These Halls have been featured in various films and TV shows about King Arthur and his famous Knights. The Cornish guy did tell me some, but I forget. Great journalism on my part there.
We all had fun pretending to be kings and servants. It made us all ever so patriotic – which was good cos we soon had to rush home to catch the England vs Germany game, which I’m not sure if you remember, we won.
Shots of tequila all round! The night only got better when Ukraine also went through to the quarter-finals. Vin povertayet’sya dodomu! (“It’s coming home!” in Ukrainian – yes I am aware that in the end it never came home, or dodomu).
And that’s that for our big trips in Cornwall! The next day we lazed around on Fistral Beach, eating ice cream, playing beach football and getting sunburnt.
Until next time, Cornwall x
To Taras, Joel, Brendan and Andy, thanks for the memories x
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