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The Trail of King Arthur in Somerset

Why not try this light-hearted circular tour to take in Arthurian sites and just some of Somerset's many other attractions?

Although the route can be joined at any point we start our description at BRENT KNOLL (off the A38).

Return to the A38 and at the 'Fox and Goose' pub turn off to Mark. Go straight over at the cross roads and follow the signs to Glastonbury across the Somerset Levels; NYLAND is in the distance to the north-east. The Glastonbury area is rich in Arthurian sites: here you will find the Abbey, the Tor and the Chalice Well. Whilst in this area you should make a trip to the Rural Life Museum.

From Glastonbury take the A39 to Street passing WEARYALL HILL and crossing POMPARLES BRIDGE. After Street stay on the A39 and head west through Bridgwater, CANNINGTON, Williton and CARHAMPTON. Watch for Dunster Castle signs to the left.

From Carhampton take the B3191 to Blue Anchor then on to Watchet and Williton, then the A358 to Taunton, the County Town of Somerset. When in Taunton, follow the town centre signs to get to the County Museum in Taunton Castle. Take the A358 out of Taunton, following the signs for Yeovil and after about three miles turn left on to the A378 to Langport. Take the A372 towards Yeovilton and the A303.

At the large Podimore roundabout (about 7 miles from Langport) take the second exit, signed to Sparkford and Wincanton (A303). After Sparkford continue on A303 and watch for the turn to SOUTH CADBURY and CADBURY CASTLE. Take the road around the hill fort and turn right back over the A303, then left towards North Cadbury and Castle Cary.

Before Castle Cary take the A359, right at the junction, then A371 to Shepton Mallet crossing ARTHUR'S BRIDGE over the weir at Alham. Follow the signs for Shepton Mallet and Wells.

The Cathedral, Bishops Palace and Vicars Close are all well worth a visit here, and after Wells follow the signs for WOOKEY HOLE watching for Ash Lane on the right. After ¼ mile turn left up Milton Road to the T-junction by the edge of the quarry. Now on foot through the gate and across the field to the foot of ARTHUR'S POINT. Return up Ash Lane to the main road and on to Wookey Hole (Caves and Mill), then follow the signs on the A371 to Cheddar (Caves and Gorge). Continue on the A371 to Axbridge, then the A38 back to BRENT KNOLL.

Dark-Age archaeology has revolutionised the Arthurian scene and given a new perspective. Cemeteries, temples, villas and hillforts have emerged as keys to the puzzle. The cemetery near CANNINGTON spans much of the Dark Ages, burial place for the probable Christian settlement which succeeded the Roman port at Combwich. The pagan temple site LAMYATT merges into the Christian era. The farmsteads around ILCHESTER were obviously not abandoned when Roman rule came to an end, and Byzantine coins in Ilchester itself strongly suggest that widespread business still went on. SOUTH CADBURY'S story of re-fortification may well be repeated at the hillforts on BRENT KNOLL and BAT'S CASTLE and who knows where else on the many Iron-Age defences of the Mendips, the Quantocks and Exmoor.

And may there not emerge more heroes? Many of the graves at CANNINGTON were arranged, perhaps ceremonially, about the tomb of a youth whose bones now lie in the parish church. And was Caratacus, whose name is recorded on a stone on WINSFORD HILL, another famous leader of his clan?

A Welshman, writing a life of St Carantoc about 1090, tells how the saint, crossing the sea from Wales, reached the land which Arthur and Cadwy ruled from Dindraithou. That was already an old name, drawn from Irish tradition, one of the 28 cities of Britain. Nearby a dragon was plaguing the land called Carrum. Both the dragon and Arthur were tamed by the saint, who in return was given Carrum, where he built a church, and land at the mouth of the river Guellit, where he built another called Carrou.

The stream running through Williton to Doniford was once called the Willet and now the Guilly or Swilly. Carrum was a place raided by the Danes in 836 and 843. Carumtune was owned by King Alfred and is CARHAMPTON. And might not Dindraithou be DUNSTER, or perhaps the hillfort at BAT'S CASTLE close by?

BRENT KNOLL, topped by an Iron-Age hillfort, overlooks the old Glastonbury Abbey estate of Brent Marsh. The chieftains who once ruled from this hill have become in legend three giants guarding the Mount of Frogs. Ider, son of Nuth, newly made a knight by Arthur, had to prove himself by slaying them single-handed, but did not long survive the contest. Remorseful, Arthur gave Brent Marsh and other lands to the monks of Glastonbury to pray for Ider's soul.

NYLAND was the island home of a hermit who died at Beckery and whose body was seen there by Arthur's squire. The island, like many in the Somerset Levels, belonged to Glastonbury Abbey.

Is GLASTONBURY TOR the place where Melwas, King of the Summer Country, brought Gwenhwyfar?

Some Dark-Age chieftain lived here, it is almost sure; and so, it was said, did St Collen, who here encountered the King of the Underworld.

Glastonbury's monks crowned the Tor with a church of St Michael, conqueror of the powers of darkness. Only the tower remains of a second church, for the first was destroyed by an earthquake. And here, in 1539, as an act of final destruction, the last Lord Abbot of Glastonbury and two of his monks (one named John Arthur) were executed.

If some of the earliest monks at Glastonbury settled around the spring below the Tor we cannot yet be sure, but the story of Lancelot's retirement there may be an echo of it.

Here, a Romance relates, lies the Holy Grail, somewhere underground. Does not the water of CHALICE WELL stain the stones red? The well shaft was built probably in the 12th century, but the spring has been known and used since prehistoric times. The modern well lid symbolises the Bleeding Lance and the interlocking Visible and Invisible worlds.

On WEARYALL HILL, so a Glastonbury chronicler records, stood the nunnery of St Peter, where Arthur often stayed, 'drawn by the charm of the place'. Here, while sleeping in his carved bed, he was visited by an angel who told him to go to the hermitage at Beckery, down in the marshes. Sir Gawain urged him to take no notice, but the vision returned the next night. On the third night Arthur's squire dreamed he had visited the chapel, seen a dead body, stolen a golden candlestick, and had been wounded. On waking the squire revealed the candlestick and his wound and died on the spot. He was buried at the nunnery.

BECKERY, a tiny island beside the river Brue, was the site of a chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Arthur visited the chapel after the death of his squire and found it guarded by two hands, each holding a sword. Inside, he found a priest who, in the presence of the Virgin Mary, offered the Son from her arms at the Mass. The Mass over, the Virgin presented Arthur with a crystal cross, which remained a venerated relic at the Abbey. The cross and a figure of the Virgin, with the Child in her arms, in silver on a green ground, became Arthur's coat of arms, and hence the arms of Glastonbury Abbey. Beckery was the site of two, and perhaps three, chapels as well as a monk's cemetery. So far nothing has been found to prove its use before about 600 A.D. despite Glastonbury claims that it was home to St Bridget of Kildare in the 5th century. The last chapel survived as long as the Abbey, and was probably part of the pilgrim round.

Between Glastonbury and Street is POMPARLES BRIDGE, Pons Perilis, the Dangerous Bridge. A modern bridge now crosses the river Brue as it runs through the level grassland to Beckery and beyond. The bridge had its dangerous name by the 14th century. From here, so Malory relates, Sir Bedivere cast away Excalibur.

St Gildas and St Kea, saints of Brittany and Cornwall, made peace between Arthur and Melwas. Gildas, who had lived for a time on Steepholm, came to Glastonbury and later lived as a hermit beside a river, building a church to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. STREET'S church, standing almost alone near a river, bears the same name. In the 13th century there was a chapel of St Gildas near Glastonbury which still stood after the Abbey had been dissolved. And next to Street is LEIGH, anciently Lantokai, the church of St Kea. No trace of either chapel now remains.

ARTHUR'S BRIDGE crossing the Alham river could well be ancient in name; certainly not a modern invention. Above the village of Lamyatt, 2 miles east, on Creech Hill, stood a pagan temple which Dark-Age Christians seem to have adopted.

King Arthur's court was at Camelot; the poets were agreed. But where was Camelot? Malory in the 15th century declared it to be Winchester, for there was the Round Table. Caxton, Malory's editor and printer, changed it to Wales, perhaps Caerleon or Caerwent. But John Leland, Henry VIII's Antiquary, decided otherwise. SOUTH CADBURY was the 'famous toun or castelle' called Camelot. Local people told him that King Arthur 'much resorted' there. Does not the river Cam flow nearby, giving its name to Queen and West Camel? Here is the hollow hill where Arthur sleeps with his knights, who emerge at full moon to ride around the hill. The Dark-Age defences on the summit could well have been 'many towered'; the chieftain here was real and powerful.