In the 1930s, excavations revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement, which had trading links with the Mediterranean world during the Late Roman period.

[3] The items found in the digs have spurred interest before this final report, with two television programmes initially aired in 2018 or 2019, one in the UK by the BBC[4] and another in the US by PBS.

This was first recorded in the 12th century when Geoffrey of Monmouth described Tintagel as the place of Arthur's conception in his mythological account of British history, Historia Regum Britanniae.

At the time, this south-westerly point of Britain was "remote, under-populated ... and therefore also unimportant [to the Roman authorities] until, during the 3rd century AD, the local tin-streaming industry attracted attention.

[7] Cornish historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas noted in 1993: "So far, no structure excavated on Tintagel Island... can be put forward as a Roman-period settlement, native-peasant or otherwise.

"[8] Despite this, a quantity of apparently Romano-British pottery has been unearthed on the site, as has a Roman-style drawstring leather purse containing ten low denomination Roman coins dating between the reigns of Tetricus I (270–272) and Constantius II (337–361).

This suggests that "at face-value ... either the Island or the landward area of the later Castle (or both...) formed the scene of third-fourth century habitation" even if no evidence has been found of any buildings dating from this period.

[9] Thomas also noted that some of the post-Roman finds in the excavations of 1933–38 were close to the wall known as the Iron Gate which guards access to the plateau from the adjacent cove.

In the mid-20th century, it was typically thought that there was a Celtic Christian monastery on the site, but "since about 1980... [this] thesis... has... had to be abandoned", with archaeologists now believing that it was instead an elite settlement inhabited by a powerful local warlord or even Dumnonian royalty.

He came to this conclusion based upon some similarities in the structures of the early medieval elements of Tintagel Castle and the 7th-century monastery at the site of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire.

"[16] This evidence led him to believe that Tintagel was a site where ships docked to deposit their cargo from southern Europe in the early medieval period.

[20] A castle was built on the site by Earl Richard in 1233 to establish a connection with the Arthurian legends that were associated by Geoffrey of Monmouth with the area[21] and because it was seen as the traditional place for Cornish kings.

Members of the pressure group Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament removed several signs because they objected to the use of the name "English Heritage", stating that Cornwall is rightfully a nation on its own.

Gallos is Cornish for power and its meaning is deliberately ambiguous as the statue could represent King Arthur or Tintagel's older royal past.

[35] Plans for a cantilevered steel footbridge to link Tintagel Island and the mainland, designed (by Ney & Partners and William Matthews Associates) to evoke Arthur's sword, were approved in 2017,[36] and the bridge was opened to the public on 11 August 2019.

Gorlois defends himself against Uther's armies at his fort of Dimilioc, but he sends Igraine to stay safely within Tintagel Castle which is his most secure refuge, according to the legend and Historia Regum Britanniae.

Ralegh Radford refused to believe in the legend and all of the associations, declaring in 1935 that "no concrete evidence whatsoever has yet been found to support the legendary connection of the Castle with King Arthur".

[46] Charles Thomas, a specialist in Cornish history, was unable to find solid links, mainly because legends and stories would have been handed down only orally during this period.

Thomas stated in 1993 that "there simply is no independently attested connection in early Cornish folklore locating Arthur, at any age or in any capacity, at Tintagel.

maintaining that the legendary figure would essentially have been an Early Medieval British leader, involved in fighting the migrating Anglo-Saxons who were settling in Britain at that time.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon's 1832 poetical illustration, A Legend of Tintagel Castle, to an engraving of a painting by Thomas Allom is another variation on the story of Lancelot and Elaine.

Excavation began in 1933, and in 1935 Ralegh Radford wrote an interim report and a guidebook entitled Tintagel Castle, published by HM Stationery Office.

Radford was required to take part in the war effort abroad, and many of the original site reports were destroyed when his house in Exeter was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the conflict.

[54] Excavations during the summers of 2016 and 2017 found the remains of various structures from the Dark Ages, including well-constructed buildings of relatively large size dated to the 5th and 6th centuries,[29] with pottery and glass finds indicating that the people who lived at Tintagel were of an upper class status,[55] drinking wine imported from the eastern Mediterranean and using food vessels from North Africa and Gaul.

[30][55] In 2017, archaeologists discovered at the castle a 7th century slate window ledge inscribed with a mixture of Latin, Greek, and Celtic words, names, and symbols.