Tintagel Castle

Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall built a castle on this peninsula in the thirteenth century and it fell into ruin, which is what nineteenth-century visitors came to see. Excavation in the 1930s found something far older underneath: a high-status settlement trading with the Mediterranean in the late Roman period. Digs in 2016 and 2017 uncovered the outlines of a palace from the fifth or early sixth century, with evidence of writing and goods brought from Spain and the eastern Mediterranean. It was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia.