Red-billed choughs spotted again at Tintagel Castle

Something Cornish folklore predicted has quietly happened on the cliffs above Tintagel. The red-billed chough, a bird tied for centuries to the soul of King Arthur himself, has come back to the castle where the legend began.

A bird woven into Arthurian myth

Choughs have been spotted again at Tintagel Castle after disappearing from the area in the mid-20th Century. Their absence was read by some at the time as a bad omen, given how deeply the bird sits in Cornish tradition.

The legend holds that King Arthur’s soul lives on in the form of a chough, its black feathers and distinctive red beak marking it out as something more than an ordinary bird. Tintagel itself is bound up in the Arthurian story as the legendary site of his conception.

“Nature and myth seem to meet”

Win Scutt, English Heritage Curator, said: “People have told stories for centuries about choughs at Tintagel, so to see them here again, at a place so bound up with the legend of Arthur, feels extraordinary. It’s a rare moment where nature and myth seem to meet.”

The return follows the successful reintroduction of choughs to Cornwall. The birds have been observed circling and foraging around Tintagel’s rugged coastline, which neatly echoes the old strand of Arthurian legend that says the king did not die but waits in an enchanted sleep, ready to return when Britain most needs him. In Cornish tradition he is also imagined as resting within the landscape itself.

What visitors might spot

Visitors to Tintagel Castle may now be lucky enough to glimpse the birds against the backdrop of one of Britain’s most storied landscapes. A limited number of binoculars will be available to borrow from the visitor centre, giving people the chance to spot choughs alongside other wildlife known to frequent the site, including dolphins, seals, sparrowhawks and pheasants.

The once and future king, it seems, may have sent word ahead.

To find out more about Tintagel Castle – visit the English Heritage website.