Case file · Folklore / legend
Merlin's Cave, Tintagel
A sea cave running beneath Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, named after the wizard Merlin; in Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' the infant Arthur is washed ashore here and taken up by Merlin.
1859 CE · 50.67, -4.76 · status: legend
The account
Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century history placed Arthur's conception at Tintagel. Victorian poetry and tourism added the cave, where visitors still look for the wizard's ghost at low tide.
The sceptical view
Literary legend; Tintagel was a real early medieval site, but no historical Merlin or Arthur is tied to the cave.