THE Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, Michael Ellis MP, visited Tintagel Castle last month as part of a tourism-focused fact-finding tour of Devon and Cornwall, praising English Heritage’s investment the site during his visit.

Mr Ellis said after his visit on July 25: “It’s been great to receive a tour of Tintagel Castle, as part of my heritage and tourism trip to the South West. The castle is one of Cornwall’s most historic sites, and having become English Heritage’s fourth most-visited site across the country, it continues to go from strength to strength.

“Having seen their bold plans to reconnect Tintagel village to the castle where the legend of King Arthur was born, this will enhance the visitor experience at the site, improve access and protect this historic landscape for future generations.”

Georgia Butters, English Heritage’s head of historic properties for Cornwall, said: “I am grateful to the Minister for taking the time to visit us at Tintagel Castle, and am pleased he had an opportunity to see how English Heritage has invested to improve the castle’s visitor facilities. As a result of our investment over the past three years — including a new exhibition and interpretation and a new café — more people visited the castle in 2017 than ever before.”

Georgia and her team took the Minister — who was accompanied by Conservative MP for North Cornwall Scott Mann — on a whistle-stop tour of Tintagel Castle’s 18-acre site, visiting the new exhibition and beach café, and climbing the steps to visit the castle’s Great Hall, see some of the new visitor interpretation and observe the site of the planned footbridge.

Dramatically situated on a windswept Cornish headland, Tintagel Castle is one of the most spectacular historic sites in Britain.

It is also one of the most legendary, linked with the tales of King Arthur since the Middle Ages.

The remains of the 13th-century castle, built in the 1230s and 1240s by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, stand among the remains of a much earlier early medieval settlement where high-status leaders lived and traded with far-off shores, importing exotic goods and perhaps trading tin.

Today, it is one of Cornwall’s most important historic attractions, welcoming over 200,000 visitors each year.