Who can resist the draw of a mystery, particularly an ancient mystery? There are a small number of places in the UK where it is the mystery that draws us just as much as what we see when we get there. These are places where unanswered questions create not just a domestic reputation but a global allure which puts them on the tourist map for visitors to Britain from all over.
The most obvious is Stonehenge, Britain’s greatest mystery site, although with recent archaeology, the unanswered questions at Stonehenge – why is it there? who built it? how was it used? – are beginning to find some solutions. This might make it more appealing as a destination to home-based history enthusiasts but in my experience many Brits have actually never made the journey to walk beside our most iconic monument.
Tintagel Castle in Cornwall is redolent with legend and one of English Heritage’s top sites. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Cornwall may himself have been inspired to build it because of a legend. The chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth span a tale in 1136 that legendary King Arthur was born there. His story is that King Uther Pendragon snuck into the castle at night in disguise to lie with his rival’s wife, Ygraine, and so Arthur was conceived. Richard of Cornwall’s castle dates mostly from the 1230s and spanned the Cornish cliffs which later partly collapsed in the 15th century. English Heritage have just opened a new magnificent bridge whose elegant cantilevered span takes you from one main courtyard on the mainland to the other on the headland. For the first time for at least 400 years it is possible to view the castle all from one level. The Victorian poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson took inspiration for his poem series The Idylls of the King from a stormy August walking holiday around Tintagel. Based on Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th century romance Le Morte d’Arthur, Tennyson associated the medieval castle with legendary Camelot, the fabled centre of King Arthur’s court and the setting for the tragic romance of Tristan and Isolde. The ruins of Richard of Cornwall’s castle and vague connections with King Arthur should not be the only reason for visiting Tintagel – most exciting are the recent excavations which have revealed the castle as the centre of the wealthy Kingdom of Dumnonia, a post-Roman Celtic kingdom which traded right across the known Mediterranean world in the 6th and 7th century.
Another place where myth and reality are inextricably mingled is 15th century Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh. The international tourist crowd come here, mostly drawn by the extravagantly fanciful plot of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. The quest in the novel ends comfortably at Rosslyn because this is already a place of mystery. The treasure of the Knights Templar may not be here, but the prodigal carvings that decorate every surface of the chapel are full of mysteries of their own. Green men compete with angels and devils, while strange New World plants pre-date Columbus’ trip to the Americas but leave room for images that excite freemasons and feminists. Before the publication of the novel about 30,000 people came here in a good year, now visitor numbers top 180,000.
Does it matter that they are brought to Rosslyn by a popular novel of dubious literary merit or that at Tintagel visitors care more about romantic myths of the origins of Britain than the tangible evidence of the post-Roman world? I don’t think so. Getting them there is what counts – what they take away is up to them. Anyone who stands on the graceful new bridge at Tintagel can step over the 4 cm gap where the spans meet and choose to feel whether they are stepping into history or into legend or simply into a glorious bit of landscape. It’s really up to them.
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