More information : (SX 04968911) Monastery (NR) (Site of) (1)
Tintagel Castle: see DOE Guide (2)
APs (3-4)
A number of hitherto unrecorded buildings which have been assigned to the pre-Saxon or `Celtic' period are identifiable occasionally as scooped platforms but unusually as grass covered banks, 0.1m high, representing concealed walling, and occur as single and multiple contiguous structures. The largest group of eleven occupies a terrace centred at SX 04898899 with a further half dozen sites some 10m below on steep slopes near the cliff edge. At SX 05008897 one building retains a single orthostat 0.7m high, apparently denoting one side opening entrance. On the top of the promontory, at SX 04928911, a group of four or five platforms have the remains of an enclosing bank. Other building platforms and foundations are centred at SX 04958915, SX 05018918 and SX 05048904.
All terraces and ledges with reasonable access seem to have been utilized and also the exposed top of the promontory save for the one third, SW part, which seems barren of settlement. Here a shallow declivity would seem an ideal sitation but it is largely below the springline and long grass and marsh may always have been a feature of the area. (In spite of the current extreme drought the water level in the nearby Medieval well has only dropped 0.5m to approximately 2.0m below ground level).
Further building sites probably exist in the long grass which covers much of the promontory, particularly to top. It is, however, clear that settlement was more extensive than previously suspected.
All features have been surveyed at 1:2500 on PFD. (5)
The interpretation of the non-castle structures as components of a monastery was mainly due to the remote siting of Tintagel, and the discovery of a very large quantity of Mediterranean imported wares 5th-early 7th century in date. Arguments against this interpretation are numerous. Tintagel possesses no documentation of a monastic role, figures in no saint's life and has no continuous Christian tradition. There is no monastic cemetery (the few graves found by the chapel could be Medieval or later), no trace of a church older than the 12th century, and few if any of the usual ancillary structures. The identified `monastic cells' closely resemble in plan 12th-14th century structures of Cornwall and Devon; and since post-Roman cells elsewhere are generally much smaller and of circular plan, it is likely that thses `cells' are mostly Medieval and part of the Castle (SX 08 NE 1). (6)
On the basis of Radford's excavations it was assumed that St Juliot, a celtic missionary arrived at Tintagel in AD 500 had been responsible for the establisment of a monastery. This was deserted during the 8th century. Tintagel was regarded as a prototype monastic establishment but unlike the other Cornish pre-Norman monasteries it lacked any religous continuity or tradition. Known examples of monastic cells, 5th-6th century in date, in Cornwall were small and curvilinear, the examples at Tintagel appear to be Medieval. The finds do not indicate an exclusively monastic setting. In 1981, Fowler and Thomas re-examined the evidence and concluded that the cluster of cells/rooms (Radford's sites A-F) were not isolated manifestations but parts of a complex 11ha. in area. Other structures were also identified forming part of an extensive Medieval settlement extramural to the island ward. (7)
Scheduled. (8)
There is documentary evidence from Henderson that a monastic community dependant on Bodmin was present at Tintagel long before the Norman Conquest. (9)
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