History features

Young Arthur

Arthur’s father, Uther, was certainly local but whether young Wart grew up in Cumbria is another matter. His adoptive father, Ector, lived to the west of Bala in north Wales. But legend also claims that Arthur was trained in a warrior school on the Roman Wall. By 410AD, the Roman grip on Britain was slipping. The empire’s soldiers were being withdrawn from Britain to help in conflicts elsewhere and local men had been trained and employed by the Roman Army for some time, so it’s quite likely that Arthur could have been trained at one of the Roman forts within Cumbria.

Arthur kills Mordred with Excalibur

Excalibur

A lot of the Cumbrian claims to Arthur rely in part on the circumstances of his death. Excalibur, and how it came to be in Arthur’s care, is one such part of the story. The legend goes that when Arthur was fatally wounded he asked one of his knights to return Excalibur to the lake it came from. Bedivere, the knight in question, made two trips to the lake and back before the dying Arthur was satisfied and asked to be taken to Avalon. If the lake in question was in another part of the country, Bedivere’s first round trip would have taken days, if not weeks or months.

Lord Alfred Tennyson was also keen on the idea of Excalibur being found in and returned to a Cumbrian lake. He was inspired to write the description of King Arthur’s final journey and the return of the sword to the water when staying at Mirehouse, overlooking Bassenthwaite.

The Round Table

What with his legendary round table, Arthur could have taught modern group psychologists a thing or two. His parliament of knights would have sat in various locations around the country as and when they were needed in different places, but the favourite location in Cumbria is the aptly-named King Arthur's Round Table, an earthworks at Eamont Bridge, near Penrith. The site is a natural amphitheatre, ideal for knights to gather and swap their stories of adventure ad romance - and it's also said that fifty champions of the realm gathered there to fight for the hand of King Arthur's daughter, Gyneth.

Nearby is Giant's Cave - a place associated with two giants called Tarquin and Isir. The pair lived on a diet of human flesh, a practice which might have lost its appeal when Sir Lancelot slew Tarquin in battle.

Camelot

Camelot was never the capital of Arthur’s Britain - it was simply where he set up his headquarters. Although he’s sceptical about the actual existence of a real King Arthur, historian Michael Wood suggested that Carlisle was actually the most likely base for the legendary king.
Other locations he suggested are also local. They include somewhere near the Solway Firth and a contested area on the Borders which is now better known as Longtown.

Arthur's Last Battle

Travel to Birdoswald and you’ll see plenty of information about the Roman fort and the gatehouse that stood until the 14th Century. One of the old grain storage areas became a great hall for local chieftains after the Romans left - and there’s a good chance the chieftain had something to do with Arthur.
Arthur’s last battle was at Camlann, also known as Camboglanna. This is thought to be the old Roman name for Birdoswald, although some people think the name actually refers to Castlesteads.

His Grave

The most famous legend about where Arthur is buried originated with the monks of Glastonbury. Some time in the 12th Century they discovered two graves in the abbey grounds which supposedly belonged to Arthur and Guinevere.

Arthuret Church, Longtown

The abbey had just been laid low by a huge fire and the cost of repairing and running the abbey was crippling. The discovery of Arthur’s grave gave the monks a much-needed financial boost - in fact by the end of the Middle Ages, Glastonbury was the richest abbey in Britain - but whether this was sheer good timing or a Medieval conspiracy theory is up to you.

But if Arthur did die near the Scottish borders, it would make more sense for him to be buried locally - which is why Arthuret Church has such a strong claim. The first church was developed on the site as early as the 6th Century - about the right era - and although it’s been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times since then, Arthur’s presence remains felt thanks to a plaque explaining the history of the church and its most famous intern.

In fact, the area has such a strong claim to Arthur that there's a caravan park about quarter of a mile from Arthuret called Camelot.

Blencathra

Time for an encore

So what about the part of the legend that says he didn’t actually die, but went into extended hibernation? If Arthur did go into a long sleep, he and a gathering of loyal knights are supposed to have done so beneath Blencathra, waiting for their next call to arms. Having been fatally wounded at Camlann, Arthur asked to be taken to a nearby shore where a boat would be waiting to take him to Avalon - in this case Blencathra.

As well as being a sacred place, it was also supposed to be the home of Afallach, a Celtic God of the Underworld. The journey to this shore would have been along the Maiden Way, an ancient road leading south from Birdoswald to Pendragon Castle, crossing the River Eden at Appleby.

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