Is Cadbury Castle really Camelot?

Question

I'm just curious what other people think on this claim. I'm currnetly studying King Arthur and I just wanted other people's feedback on it. Do you think Cadbury Castle, which is 11 miles south of Glastonbury, is Camelot? Do you think the mysterious Glastonbury Tor could of possibly been Avalon?

Answer 1

I could write you a book on this, it is something I have read about for years.

Camelot. Not as the medieval witters described it. It could well have been the fortress of the Romano-British dux bellorum Arthur. And there is evidence of there being a leader of that name. But he did not have knights in armor riding out on quest. He was defending the remnants of the Roman civilization in Britain against the Saxon invaders.

Glastonbury was a religious centre but exactly what the rituals were is debatable. It is as good a guess as any other. Assuming you actually believe there was an Isle of Avalon.

Answer 2

The bottom line, of course, is that no one really knows. They don't even know if King Arthur ever existed. There is only one ancient reference to him, of a local Welsh war-lord named Arturius in Latin, but he didn't really live around Glastonbury.

History is a real muddle when it comes to Arthur, but it is fascinating none-the-less. As for Cadbury Castle, it has a better claim than anywhere else, even better as a fort than does Glastonbury (they aren't far apart). However, you must not think of huge walled castles here, that isn't at all what Cadbury was like. It was a hill fort or a ring fort and had walls of earth and timber. Houses were earthen and tent-like often-times, so the image we have of Camelot from the movies is serious wrong.