English Heritage’s footbridge at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall has been named as the overall winner at The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust Building Beauty Awards 2022.

The awards celebrate the best of beautiful new architecture – the buildings, engineering structures and urban landscaping schemes that add beauty to Britain’s environment.

In addition to the overall award, Tintagel Castle’s footbridge also took home the best Engineering Award at the ceremony in London.

As the overall winner at the Building Beauty Awards, the footbridge now becomes the UK entry for the International Building Beauty Prize awarded at the World Architecture Festival in Lisbon on December 2.

Commissioned by English Heritage, the bridge – designed by Ney & Partners engineers and architects William Matthews Associates – reunites for the first time in more than 500 years, the two halves of Tintagel Castle.

The bridge consists of two cantilevers that reach out and – almost – touch in the middle. At the centre, a narrow gap represents the transition between the mainland and the island, the present and the past.

Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s Chief Executive, said: “English Heritage’s purpose is to care for great historic sites like Tintagel Castle and to inspire people to visit them. Our bridge does both. Quite simply, this wonderful crossing encapsulates our ambitions as a charity to bring history to life in imaginative ways.

“We are delighted that the judges recognised the brilliant work by Ney & Partners and William Matthews Associates. We’d also like to thank The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust for their generous donation, without which we could not have reunited Tintagel Castle.”

Spanning a 190-foot gorge on the North Cornwall coast, the footbridge follows the line of the original historic entrance route – a narrow strip of land, long lost to erosion – between the castle’s 13th-century gatehouse on the mainland and its courtyard on the jagged headland, or island, jutting into the sea. So significant was this historic crossing that it gave rise to the place’s name, the Cornish Din Tagell meaning “the Fortress of the Narrow Entrance”. Legend has it that the King of Britain, Uther Pendragon – transformed by the wizard Merlin into the likeness of the Duke of Cornwall – stole across this passage into the castle, where he spent the night with the Duke’s wife, Ygerna, who later gave birth to the future King Arthur.

The delicate and structurally ingenious bridge complements the coastal landscape, unlocks for the visitor the history of the castle, and provides step-free access to the island – opening up the historic site to people who hitherto were unable to enjoy it.

Prefabricated in Plymouth and then erected on site, the bridge features local Cornish slate quarried at Delabole, just 5km from the castle. Commissioned by English Heritage following an international design competition, the footbridge opened in August 2019 and formed part of a larger programme of works by the charity at the site which included improving the footpaths around the castle, helping to limit the impact of visitors on the site’s unique archaeology and ecology.

The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust donated £2.5-million towards the project, the largest single private donation received to date by English Heritage.

English Heritage became a charity in 2015 and as part of a new strategy to revive the sites in its care, to make them more accessible, and to open up more spaces within them, the charity has been commissioning sensitive contemporary design which respects and complements the historic context.

For more information on the Tintagel Castle Footbridge, visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/tintagel-castle/tintagel-bridge