By South Cadbury, is that Camelot…

Leslie Alcock

'...a hill of a mile compass at the top, four trenches circling it, and twixt every of them an earthen wall.' So wrote John Selden in his 'Illustrations' to Michael Drayton's history of Britain,Polyolbion (completed in I622). Ever since the early sixteenth century, when the King's Antiquary, John Leland, first identified South Cadbury with Camelot and King Arthur, antiquaries and archaeologists have speculated about this large hill-fort in Somerset; and King Arthur, his knights and his court at Camelot are the quintessence of Arthurian folk-lore. Some slight excavation took place on the site in the late nineteenth century, and for a week in 1913 under St George Gray. The interest in Cadbury/Camelot and Arthurian connections revived in the mid-195os, resulting in the formation of the Camelot Research Committee in 1965 on which Leslie Alcock served as Director of Excavations. The excavation, in view of the immense size of the site, could only be selective and it had to bear in mind the other periods of the site from the Iron Age into early Medieval times. To the author fell the task of planning his several seasons' campaigns to obtain the most information and answer as many questions as possible. The solid results were the uncovering of a major defensive work; of a gate-tower which is the only one known of the Arthurian period, and also a timber hall, one of the only three known. This book is written for the vast number of enthusiasts who went to see the excavation of Cadbury Castle; and for everyone like them, with no special knowledge but a lively interest in Arthur, in archaeology or in history. ON THE JACKET: Excavation of the Arthurian gate With 110 illustrations, 15 in colour and 36 line drawings.