About Merlin’s Cave Waterfall
“Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” is kind of my waterfaller’s excuse to talk about the experience at the popular Tintagel Castle in Cornwall County.
I put the name in quotes because it’s not the formal name of the waterfall, and to my knowledge, it doesn’t have an official name.
Nevertheless, when I made my visit in early July 2024, I witnessed this waterfall conspicuously spilling into a small bay called the Tintagel Haven, which can be a beach in low tide.
The waterfall spills right by the so-called Merlin’s Cave, which is one of the tidal sea caves beneath the bluff (called Tintagel Head) supporting the Tintagel Castle.
Yet, it’s also surrounded by other caves, high bridges, high cliffs, and the Tintagel Castle ruins itself so there’s a lot to be experienced here.
In any case, it was its vicinity to the Merlin’s Cave that compelled me to refer to the waterfall based on that cave.
While the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” was scenically located and can be quite the attraction in and of itself, this area is really known for the Tintagel Castle.
The castle is nothing more than ruins and relics with some interpretive signs, and you really have to use your imagination to see what this place must have been like in its heyday.
It’s said that the medieval castle was for Richard, the Earl of Cornwall, but it’s apparently associated with King Arthur since he might have been conceived here.
Anyways, the lines between what’s real and what’s not was quite blurred because King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table were fictional characters that may or may not be based on fact (it’s all speculation).
So it’s that ambiguity between fiction or fact that made my self-tour of the Tintagel Castle feel rather kitschy and unusual.
That said, the real appeal of the Tintagel Castle is the precipitous sea cliff views, which will become apparent why when I discuss the paid part of a typical Tintagel Castle self-tour below.
Anyways, I’ll briefly describe how I did my self-tour of the castle, which encompasses the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall”, but it also includes the self-guided loop walk on the Tintagel Head as well as the free area outside of Tintagel Head.
After all, I figure that my experience reflects what most visitors will experience on their own.
Experiencing The Paid Part of Tintagel Castle
The paid part of Tintagel Castle involves crossing a high bridge to go onto a rocky 300ft island called the Tintagel Head.
Given that a self-tour of the Tintagel Castle on the Tintagel Head was quite expensive (it was 21.5 pounds per adult and 13 pounds for children 5-17 years in age), the cost of doing this excursion can really add up.
I did this excursion solo to save money since the rest of the family wasn’t keen on doing it and were keen on just killing time in the town of Tintagel.
Speaking of saving money, if I had pre-booked the tickets online (which only works if I adhered to a set schedule for the day the ticket was bought for), I could have paid 18 pounds per adult and 11 pounds for children.
Anyways, after paying for my ticket (roughly 600m walk from the public pay-and-display car park; see directions below), I kept it and hiked about 250m as it descended towards a signed fork.
Note that in this 250m stretch, there was a paid shuttle for people wanting to cut this part out of their walk.
Actually, the shuttle continues another 250m down the road towards some toilets as well as a connector trail going up to the ticket checking kiosk above.
The trail fork on the left actually goes about 250m to that same ticket checking kiosk, which essentially guards the entrance to the high bridge providing access to the Tintagel Head and thus the Tintagel Castle ruins.
The high bridge (about 600m from the admission office or 1.2km from the car park) already provided views of the Tintagel Haven as well as precipitous views down to the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” below.
After crossing the high bridge, I basically did a counterclockwise loop walk that went among more ruins, by more interpretive signs, and overlooking both the Tintagel Haven and “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall”.
Once I got to where the trail started to bend to the left (west), the views became more dominated by sea cliff scenery battered by the Celtic Sea or Atlantic Ocean.
Eventually the westward trail went past some underground tunnel before reaching a flat area adorned with a ghostly-looking King Arthur statue (also called Gallos), which was about 1.8km from the car park or 600m from the high bridge).
This statue is probably the most photographed part of Tintagel Head.
Continuing with the counterclockwise loop, the trail then circled back towards the high bridge after another 600-700m.
At this bridge, I had the option of going back across or taking a cliff-hugging descent down to a lower bridge.
I wound up taking the latter, and after crossing that lower bridge (having gone roughly 2.4-2.5km from the car park at this point), I then exited the paid complex.
I believe this is a one-way exit meaning you can’t come back in this way after leaving, and I suspect that guy manning this exit bridge is there to make sure I didn’t come back.
So that deposited me onto the free part of the Tintagel Castle area, which I’ll delve into next.
Experiencing The Free Part of Tintagel Castle
The free or public part of Tintagel Castle is what I’m referring to as the section where the public can freely explore without having to pay additional money for the privilege of hiking here.
It primarily hugged the eastern side of the Tintagel Haven and went towards the top of the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” and beyond.
There was actually a spur trail descending right down to the Tintagel Haven, where under low tide, I could have explored the beach and even gotten to the base of the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall”.
Not only that, but I probably could have also explored the Merlin’s Cave as well as other sea caves around this cove.
Unfortunately, my visit in early July 2024 happened in the mid-afternoon, which just so happened to be high tide.
Therefore, the entire cove was under water and I had to limit my experience here primarily to the brink of the waterfall (about 100m from the lower exit bridge) and just the views of the cove from the main trail.
My logs suggested that the brink of the waterfall was about 2.6km from the car park.
Indeed, that pretty much limited my time here, and I didn’t linger for too long (not prolonging my visit by continuing to hike along the sea cliffs going further to the northeast).
Instead, I went back up the road past the shuttle endpoint, and walked the remaining distance back to the public car park making the grand total hiking distance about 3.6km.
I wound up spending just under 2 hours away from the car, which I’d imagine would be the typical duration for doing this excursion (something worth noting when deciding how much time to pay-and-display for in the public car park).
By the way, the high price of admission from the National Trust to experience the Tintagel Head has been met with a lot of criticism in the literature.
Now, it has been claimed that the free area is just as good as the paid area on the bridges and the Tintagel Head.
Well, that may be true, but in order to at least experience the coastal views, you’d have to hike a bit further along the cliffs to get them.
Moreover, in order to get in front of the “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall”, as mentioned earlier, you’d have to do this only in low tide.
So it may be true that the free and public area can be as fulfilling as the paid part of Tintagel Castle, but you’d definitely have to work for it.
If you’re pressed for time, then you can’t get any more compact nor as convenient as that of the paid excursion and walking the loop atop the Tintagel Head.
Authorities
“Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” is in Tintagel Castle in the town of Tintagel in Cornwall County, England. It is managed by English Heritage. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the English Heritage website.
The “Merlin’s Cave Waterfall” resides in the Tintagel Castle National Trust in Tintagel (that’s “tin-TAH-jul”) in Cornwall (the ceremonial county of this part of South West England).
Although there are several ways of driving to the Tintagel vicinity, we’ll just focus on how would drive here from Ilfracombe, where we were staying.
From Ilfracombe, we’d make our way south to the A361 for about 14 miles through Braunton and towards Barnstaple to hook up with the A39.
Once at the roundabout where the A361 hooks up with the A39, we took the 2nd exit to go west on the A39.
Then, we drove a little over 47 miles on the A39 west and then south before reaching a signed turnoff on the right for the B3314 Road towards Tintagel.
Then, we’d continue another 1.7 miles along the B3314 Road before turning right onto the B3263 Road towards Tintagel (about 0.2-mile past a potentially confusing four-way intersection).
Once on the B3263 Road, we’d then drive for a little over 4 miles to the roundabout in the town of Tintagel, where we’d take the 1st exit for Fore Street.
After another 0.1-mile, we then turned right and parked at the signed King Arthur’s Car Park, where there was a huge pay-and-display lot with seemingly ample parking (despite how busy it was).
As for the cost of the pay-and-display here, we paid for 2 hours at a rate of 1.6 pounds (Note: if you’re staying longer, then 2.1 pounds is for 3 hours and 2.6 pounds is for 4 hours).
Overall, this drive should take about 2 hours (according to GoogleMaps).
Finally, keep in mind that if taking the Tintagel route, GoogleMaps will try to take you on sketchy single-lane hedge roads to get from the A39 to the B3263 Road.
All I can say is that those routes are non-sensical and will result in more delays and higher likelihood of accidents.
This is due to a combination of blind spots and tractor traffic (including those going in the opposite direction).
However, if you just stick to the route described above, you’ll avoid such GPS-navigation-induced headaches.
For context, Tintagel is about 44 miles (under 90 minutes drive) northwest of Plymouth, about 43 miles (over an hour drive) southwest of Bideford, about 42 miles (under 90 minutes drive) northwest of Exeter, about 64 miles (under 2 hours drive) southwest of Ilfracombe, about 60 miles (about 2.5 hours drive) northeast of Penzance, about 120 miles (about 2.5 hours drive) southwest of Glastonbury, about 163 miles (about 3 hours drive) southwest of Bath, and 257 miles (over 4.5 hours drive) west of London.
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Checking out the scenery from the swinging bridge connecting the public area with the island containing the ruins of the Tintagel Castle
Checking out the scenery from the swinging bridge connecting the public area with the island containing the ruins of the Tintagel Castle
Sweeping right to left and back sweep of the scenery below containing the waterfall and the caves as seen from an open lookout atop the isle containing the Tintagel Castle ruins
Another wide open sweep showing the context of the caves and waterfall down below along with some of the ruins dotting part of the isle connected by the paid bridge
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