Where was Camelot Nobody knows if the legendary

Where was Camelot?

Nobody knows if the legendary court of King Arthur really existed, but if it did where might it have been? There are several places around England Wales that claim to be the location of Camelot and to this day people still search for evidence and clues that they hope will lead them to the mythical castle.

Caerleon, South Wales Two of the earliest people to write about King Arthur, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes, both placed Camelot in Caerleon in South Wales. Since many celts were pushed into Wales by the invading Anglo-Saxons, who Arthur was considered to have been fighting, it is plausible that Camelot could have been in Wales. There also a series of medieval Welsh folk tales, called the Mabinogion, which mention Arthur, his knights and his court, which suggest that the legends could have originated in Wales.

Cadbury Castle, Somerset Cadbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort in Yeovil in Somerset and is believed to have been in use from the mid 5 th century until around 580 AD. Archaeological excavations of the site have shown that it had a large building (possibly Arthur’s Great Hall) and the discovery of eastern Mediterranean pottery suggests that whoever lived there was wealthy and meaning it is plausible that this site was the palace or castle of a Dark Ages king. Also, according to tradition, King Arthur sleeps in Cadbury Castle. The hill fort is supposedly hollow, and there he and his knights lie, ready until such time as England should need their services again. Indeed, every Midsummer Eve, King Arthur is supposed to lead a troop of mounted knights down the slopes of the hill.

Tintagel Castle, Cornwall Goeffrey of Monmouth wrote that Arthur was conceived at Tintagel Castle on the north coast of Cornwall. In 1998, the Artognou stone was discovered at Tintagel which was a stone dating back to the 6 th century, inscribed with the Latin words “Pater Coliavificit Artognov“. This translates as "Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, has had this built". Whilst this doesn’t mean very much, many people believe that Artognou, which is pronounced Arthnou, actually refers to the legendary King Arthur and provide evidence linking him to his reported birth place. There is no evidence that Tintagel was Camelot, but if Arthur was born here, might he also have made his court here?

Winchester, Hampshire In the 15 th century, Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d’Arthur, a compilation of stories about Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table, taken from both French and English sources. In this, he claimed that Winchester Castle was Camelot. For hundreds of years, a round wooden tabletop has been displayed in the Great Hall at Winchester Castle in Hampshire. It is painted with the names of King Arthur and 24 knights, and shows their places around the table. In 1976 the table was carbon dated, which showed that it dated to the 13 th/14 th century and so couldn’t have belonged to Arthur. It is most likely that it was painted during the reign of Henry VIII. Nevertheless, Winchester remains one of the places that many believe could have been the location of the legendary Camelot.

These are just some of the locations that have been put forward for Camelot. Others include the Castle of Dinerth, Edinburgh, the Roman fort of Camboglanna on Hadrian’s Wall, Colchester, Wroxeter, Roxburgh Castle in the Scottish Borders and many more. Where do you think Camelot might have been?