This tours endeavours to untangle Dark Age fact from medieval fiction in Britain’s biggest historical enigma: King Arthur. Based out of our hotel in Taunton we start at Cadbury, an iron-age hillfort refortified in the Dark Ages, which could have been Arthur’s HQ. On our second day we travel to the coastal castle of Tintagel, one of the most dramatic historic sites in the country situated on a rock above the crashing waves below, and location of Arthur’s birth. Here we examine the remains of a Dark Age palace which once traded with the Byzantine world. Stopping at nearby Slaughter Bridge we consider what is thought to have been the site of the great warrior’s last battle. We also visit Glastonbury where we see the site of Arthur’s supposed grave as revealed in 1191 and later enhanced by Edward I, himself a great Arthurian. The tour crosses into South Wales, to see Roman ruins which Arthur would have known and may have inspired the legend of the Round Table, as well as immersing ourselves in the culture of the early Dark Ages. Finally we visit the area around Bath exploring the Wansdyke, the Hadrian’s Wall of the South, which may have delineated the battle site of Mount Badon, Arthur’s crushing victory over the Saxons. We climb Solsbury Hill, the possible site of this battle, and finish our tour at Dyrham, the site of the Saxons’ revenge.

Description supplied by the event organiser.