Bossiney Mound - Bossiney, Cornwall - Weird Story Locations on Waymarking.com

"Bossiney is not Tintagel. Though one ends and the other begins without obvious gap on the corkscrewing coastal road to Boscastle, Bossiney has an identity of its own. It may have neither church nor monument, but times were when it was greater in importance, days when Bossiney and Trevena — the old name for Tintagel — were a united Borough, boasting a Mayor and Corporation, a seal and mace, sending not one but two Members of Parliament to London. There is one lovely story about a certain Mayor of Bossiney. He was a farmer and no scholar. When the Sheriff arrived one day with a writ, Mr Mayor was busy thatching a rick. Determined not to lose time, he proceeded to read the document upside down. The Sheriff, attempting to be helpful, pointed out this fact, only to be promptly told: 'Sir, the Mayor of Bossiney can read upside down if he wants!' The village of Bossiney grew around what is today a hump on the landscape. Cloaked in gorse and hemlock, cocksfoot and bracken, Bossiney Mound stands alongside the squat Methodist Chapel on the eastern side of the road. Moreover, history and legend combine to give it a special significance in the story of North Cornwall. It Was a castle, used for defensive purposes until the building of Tintagel Castle, and its architect was Robert Earl of Montain, half-brother of William the Conqueror. To this Mound traders brougnt their slaves for auction. Here, too, Cornishmen raised their right hand to send Sir Francis Drake to Parliament. It was Sabine Baring-Gould, that many sided squire and parson from Lewtrenchard, just over the Cornwall-England border, who wove Bossiney Mound into the Arthurian tapestry. 'According to Cornish tradition,' he said, 'King Arthur's golden Round Table lies deep in the earth buried under this earthen circular mound; only on Midsummer night does it rise, and then the flash of light from it for the moment illumines the sky, after which the golden table sinks again. At the end of the world it will come to the surface again and be carried to Heaven, and the Saints will sit and eat at it, and Christ will serve them.' The curious thing is that people, including one of us, have seen a strange inexplicable light here on Midsummer Eve: a light suddenly appearing inside one of the Chapel windows only a few yards away — a glow rather than a single shaft of electricity — like a patch of moorland mist. It vanished as dramatically and inexplicably as it had appeared. In the words of one witness: 'We know we saw some-thing. I'll always believe it was something to do with the legend. Why tonight? And why so near the Mound?' "

SOURCE - King Arthur Country In Cornwall, Colin Wilson, 1979

Type: Local Legend or Lore Referenced in (list books, websites and other media): King Arthur Country In Cornwall, Colin Wilson, 1979 (ISBN 0 906456 21 5) http://www.tintagelweb.co.uk/bossiney%20mound.htm Additional Coordinates: Not Listed Website Reference: Not listed

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