Choughs reappear at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall after decades of absence

Decades after disappearing from the jagged cliffs around Tintagel Castle on the coast of north Cornwall, a bird with legendary connections to the area has returned.

The custodian of Tintagel, English Heritage, and local ornithologists have declared that choughs – charismatic corvids with red beaks and feet – are back.

Choughs are considered Cornwall’s “national bird” and feature in its coat of arms but vanished as a resident from the far south-west of the UK in the early 1970s, largely because of the decline of their grazed clifftop habitat.

Their disappearance was keenly felt across Cornwall but particularly, perhaps, in and around Tintagel because of the bird’s connections to the legend of King Arthur.

The once and future king is said to have been conceived at Tintagel and his spirit is said to live on in the shape of a chough, the red feet and beak representing his bloody end.

Since the turn of this century, choughs have staged a comeback in Cornwall and English Heritage announced on Thursday that they had made it back to Tintagel.

The remains of the castle on a rocky headland on the north Cornish coast. Photograph: Nigel Wallace-Iles

Win Scutt, an English Heritage curator, said: “People have told stories for centuries about choughs at Tintagel, so to see them here again, a place so bound up with the legend of Arthur, feels extraordinary. It’s a rare moment where nature and myth seem to meet.”

Speaking to the Guardian as he clambered the cliffs around the castle, which is built half on the mainland, half on a headland projecting into the waves, Scutt said: “They’re on the coat of arms with a fisherman and a tin miner, so they’re very much tied in with Cornish identity.”

Christina Hazel, a visitor assistant at Tintagel, said she was mesmerised by the choughs when they reappeared. “They’re fascinating and magical to watch. We started with one male and now have three birds that visit.”

Choughs have been seen from time to time at Tintagel since September 2024 but their return has not been widely publicised to give them time and space to settle. Hazel said: “It’s wonderful to see them back on our coastline.”