Day 4: Bude – Plymouth

Bebe

We hit the road early this morning, and headed straight for … you guessed it, a castle!

Bude to Land End, with a few stops along the way.
Bude to Land End, with a few stops along the way.
Lands End to Plymouth
Lands End to Plymouth

Launceston Castle is another motte and bailey castle, much larger than Okehampton. It was also built shortly after the Norman conquest. It was a wealthy and powerful castle, being the administrative headquarters for the Earl of Cornwall. You can definitely see the difference between Okahampton and Launceston – Launceston is huge!

We happened to arrive in Launceston village just as they were starting their annual 10km fun run, so that made life a bit interesting. A bagpiper sent the runners on their way. We watched them leave from the town square, and then wandered down to the castle (aka the finishing line), and were just leaving the castle as the first runners came in – accompanied by the pipes. It made the whole visit a little bit interesting.

Launceston Castle, hurrah!
Launceston Castle, hurrah!

The next stop was a prime destination for me – Tintagel Castle. I’ve dreamed of going to this place since I was a small child – I read a lot of books about castles and this was my favourite. And it was everything I imagined. Tintagel the village is cute and touristy, the castle complex is huge and spectacular. The main castle is on an island just off the end of a peninsula, with a bridge connecting the two. There has been buildings on the site since Roman times, but the castle that’s there now was build in the 1200s.

Tintagel is most famous for being the place where King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table hung out – though there is no evidence that this is actually true facts.

View from the island to the headland - you can see the impressive Camelot Castle Hotel in the distance.
View from the island to the headland – you can see the impressive Camelot Castle Hotel in the distance.

We were hoping to be able to get to a couple more castles before heading for Plymouth (a barren wasteland, history-wise according to locals), but we were running out of time, so opted for Lands End as our final stop for the day. It was a lovely spot to have a coffee and a sit down.

The end of the land of England.
The end of the land of England.

We finally arrived in Plymouth about 7pm, weary and hungry. Our grand plans to go out for a nice dinner somewhere lasted as long as elevator ride to the lobby….we ate our meal at the hotel restaurant and retired early.