THE coastal village of Bossiney, near Tintagel, in North Cornwall is home to the circular Bossiney Mound, famed for its connection to Arthurian legend. According to tradition, King Arthur’s Round Table is said to lie buried under the mound and, so the story goes, only on Midsummer night does it rise to the surface with a flash of light illuminating the sky before it sinks again.

In reality, the Bossiney Mound, sited next to a chapel building just off the coastal road linking Tintagel and Boscastle, is thought to be the remains of a small Norman fortification, and Elizabethan seadog Sir Francis Drake is said to have given a speech on the mound before becoming an MP for Bossiney in the 16th century.

The site is a scheduled ancient monument also known as Bossiney Castle. The fortification was replaced by Tintagel Castle as the local centre of power in the 13th century.

The borough of Bossiney, which included the modern-day village of Tintagel – then called Trevena, was one of numerous small locations in Cornwall that were given the right to return MPs to Parliament in bygone times in a move designed to consolidate support for the monarch. In the early part of the 19th century, the county, where the Duchy of Cornwall under the control of the heir to the throne held much influence, had 44 MPs, one more than Scotland.

The Old Borough House, reputed to have been the house of the mayor of Bossiney, still stands in the village and is now a grade II listed building.

Bossiney is also the site of medieval farming strips similar to those found at Forrabury Common at Boscastle. In the past, farmers would take seaweed from the coast to use as fertiliser on their fields.

*Andrew Townsend is a journalist and writer. He further explores the county in the travel book, Cornwall Favourites For One And All!: A Quick Guide To Good Places To Visit Across The County, which is available in print and as an ebook. More details on Andrew’s books and ebooks can be found via this link to his author page on Amazon - https://bit.ly/AndrewTownsendAuthor