I have loved our holiday so far but I think today might have been my favourite day so far! It combined lots of things that I love: spending time with my family, history, the outdoors and Cornish pasties!
We got to Tintagel as it opened. The kids seem to be waking early this holiday meaning that we get up and out of the house quite early and seem to be missing the busy crowds at our destinations. I was quite worried about our day, looking at the website and reviews, I wasn’t entirely sure if this place was going to be child friendly. We realised quite soon that it was a parents nightmare!
We had to walk down a long slope to get to the base of the castle, it wasn’t too bad, Spence managed fine and Coen insisted on being carried for most of it.
Tintagel castle is apparently the birth place of King Arthur and although I’m aware that he is a myth, I still love anything that connected with him and relates to history.
The climb to the castle consists of 150 steep and uneven steps which was pretty treacherous on a calm sunny day, I think a rainy windy day would probably result in a few deaths. Again, Spence was ok with the climb but Coen most definitely had to be carried- despite his annoyance!
The ruins of the castle are up high on a cliff, it’s beautiful and the views are astounding, however there is literally nothing to stop anyone wandering off the side of the cliff- any parents nightmare! Mark and I had to take a kid each and watch them like a hawk, herding they away from danger! I sounded like a neurotic mother constantly telling Spence to stop running and being completely exasperated that Coen chose today as the day that he wanted to learn to jump!
We reached the top of the castle where the biggest attraction was stationed- a figure of King Arthur, shockingly just a few metres from a cliff edge with a lot of uneven footing and a British coastal wind! With relief we realised we could head back until it dawned on us that we had to not only go back the way we came but this time we had to go DOWN the steps! Cue lots of mini heart attack’s, a sore back from carrying Coen, stress from trying to prevent someone from plummeting to their death and we made it down.
As if we weren’t idiotic enough to take the kids up a treacherous cliff we then decided it would be fine to go down more steps to the beach below to visit Merlins cave! Hell, we were still alive, if we could get through Tintagel castle we could climb down another few steps! Except the steps didn’t quite go all the way to the bottom…they stopped short and we had to finish the route by….climbing down onto rocks! What..the…hell!
The beach was cute, the cave was rocky, I couldn’t take Coen too far into it so we hung out on the beach while Spence and Mark went inside. The beach had a really pretty waterfall, it really was a magical (if treacherous) place. We managed to get safely back to steady, flat footing, everyone was still alive, my heart could finally recover, it was time for a well deserved pasty xx