Merlin's Cave

Merlin's Cave is a cave located beneath Tintagel Castle, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south-west of Boscastle, Cornwall, England. It is 100 metres (330 ft) long,[1] passing completely through Tintagel Island from Tintagel Haven on the east to West Cove on the west.[2] It is a sea cave formed by marine erosion along a thrust plane between slate and volcanic rocks.[1] The cave fills with water at high tide, but has a sandy floor and is explorable at low tide.[3]

The cave's entrance at low tide
General view

Tennyson made Merlin's Cave famous in his Idylls of the King, describing waves bringing the infant Arthur to the shore and Merlin carrying him to safety.[4]

References
  1. Bird, Eric (2008). Coastal Geomorphology: An Introduction. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. [n.p.] ISBN 978-0-470-51729-1. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  2. Wilson, Gilbert (1971). "The Influence of Rock Structures on Coastline and Cliff Development Around Tintagel, North Cornwall". In Steers, J. A. (ed.). Introduction to Coastline Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 152. ISBN 0-262-19089-3.
  3. "Merlin's Cave at Tintagel, Cornwall". King Arthur, and the legend of the Knights of the Round Table. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  4. Tennyson, Alfred (1859). Idylls of the King (PDF). The Pennsylvania State University. pp. 12–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2014-02-19.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.