Tintagel Castle, Padstow and Exeter

Friday, 3rd June - (Catch-up)

Tintagel has always been one of those mythical places you thought you might like to see. Today we are heading, eventually for Exeter, but having to leave St.Mawes by 10.00am, we will be too early, so we have decided to go via Tintagel, and then we thought that Padstow was not far out of our way, so we'd go there as well. We'd seen pictures of Padstow in some of the Rick Stein cooking programs and it looked pleasant, so why not?

Best laid plans!!! First we missed our turn off to get towards it, and then realised we couldn't get off this part of the highway for some time as there were no exits for quite a few miles. So, having worked out what we'd do, and the fact we were now North of Padstow, we'd head back and have a look anyway. What appeared to be a main road was very narrow, and and with lots of traffic. When we finally got down the hill to Padstow itself there was nowhere to park, and so all we did was drive through. It looked pleasant enough, but thousands of other people must have thought so as well, and there was just no chance in stopping, so we headed for Tintagel.

The road to Tintagel was much better than that into Padstow, and plenty of parking in the village. There is no parking down at the castle, and you either walk down a very steep hill to near the sea, or as we discovered, they offer a ride down and back in a jeep, and that turned out to be one of the best things to do, considering the effort we would need to actually see the ruins! Best 8 pounds we've spent yet!

Once at the bottom, you are facing the ocean, and we asked what sort of effort was needed, and they told us quite honestly that it was a bit of a climb, but worth it. Tintagel is also English Heritage, so we decided to go in and see how we went. It would be like St. Michael's Mount, and you can't get that close and not "do it".

It is very steep in places, and on the way to the very steep part, you can look down into the bay, and get a view of the entrance to an enormous cave they call Merlin's Cave. Really quite impressive, but a long way down to the cove, especially when you think you might want to do the climb to the top as well.

There are two parts to the castle, one is one the mainland and the other on an island. There is a very sturdy bridge across, and then you begin the ascent up some very narrow stairs, pausing against the rail to let others come down. It is a bit of an effort, but not as difficult as the Mount was. 

Once at the top, there is a gateway into the ruins of the castle that was built in about the 1300's, and there are newer ruins within the older ones, and some parts of the castle have fallen into the sea. On the island, some of the ruins date back to the Dark Ages (500-700AD), and these actually predate the Arthurian legend. There have been many finds of pottery from that era. On the top there is a well, which they still use for fire-fighting, and a tunnel, although they are unsure what it was used for.

It was a sparkly day and we were able to (thankfully) purchase some water from a hut set up by the English heritage crowd, and as we'd had enough after about an hour, we headed slowly down, which is again a tricky thing.

The Atlantic Ocean was shimmering and calm in the sunlight, but we were told that when it is extremely rough, the waves wash right up into the cove to great heights, and the spray travels up the hill and coats the town.

 After the jeep drive back to the top, we had a short walk back to the car, and thankfully had some lunch of salmon sandwiches we'd made to bring with us.

The road back out of Tintagel is good, and the trip on to Exeter is on good roads, with some divided highway after Launceston. Needless to say we were knackered after the trudging around castles., etc, and had the usual nap, and then a nice dinner of steak (G), and chicken (L), and veg, which is one of the failings in the chain of restaurants. Everyone seems to think that the public WANT al dente (read hard) vegetables all the time. Not so, we just want them cooked properly. Surely, even if you are cooking for potentially a couple of hundred people, it could be better managed.