Arthur's round table gets around

By PAUL KELBIE in Glasgow

For centuries, the brave and chivalrous exploits of King Arthur and his knights of the round table have entertained and inspired millions of people, who believe the legendary monarch to be the quintessential English hero.

Tales of how the wise warrior, his magical adviser Merlin, companions including Sir Lancelot, and queen Guinivere fought to preserve an almost utopian paradise known as Camelot have been the subject of many stories, films, poems and plays.

But on the eve of the first screenings of a block-buster movie that once again raises the profile of the ancient warrior, a new battle is being waged - for the rights to Arthur himself.

For years, Tintagel on the north coast of Cornwall has claimed the Celtic chieftain, branding the area as "King Arthur Country" and raking in millions of tourist pounds.

But pressure is growing from north of the border to reclaim Arthur as a Scot in the same mould as William Wallace and Rob Roy, who earned millions for Scottish tourism after being the subject of Hollywood films.

A fresh argument put forward by historians not only claims Arthur's birthright but also his grave, his castle, the fabled city of Camelot and even the lake of the legend.

Glasgow historian Hugh McArthur, 42, has thrown down the gauntlet to other Arthurian scholars by claiming the real Arthur was Artur MacAeden, a Welsh-speaking prince of the Britons who ruled the region of Strathclyde and fought Saxon invaders in the sixth century.

"There's a lot more evidence that Arthur is from what is now Scotland than that he's from Cornwall, which is where most people believe he was from," said McArthur.

"Cornwall makes a lot of money out of the Arthurian legend with very little evidence.

"There is a lot of circumstantial evidence such as links in heraldry, clan badges, and tradition which identifies the Arthur clan as being descended from Arthur's son."

In Tintagel, the reaction to the Scottish claim was a little jaded.

The custodian of King Arthur's Great Halls, Roger Toy, said: "Three weeks ago it was that he was from Russia, and last week we had Northumbria. Scotland is a re-hash of about three years ago.

"Nobody's ever proved he exists; how anybody's going to prove where he comes from I don't know.

"We don't claim he existed only in Tintagel, but the most popular version of the legend states he was born in Tintagel."

Chief among McArthur's "evidence" is a sixth century red sandstone sarcophagus in Govan Old Parish Church, near Glasgow, which has carved on its side a Celtic-Romano warrior bearing the capital letter A.

Although the sarcophagus was once thought to contain the remains of St Constantine, King of Cornwall, Christian martyr and founder of Govan in 565AD, McArthur claims it could quite easily be Arthur's grave.

He says Govan used to be the traditional burial ground for the castle at Dumbarton - which means fortress of the Britons - and was called Castello Artutius, or Arthur's Castle, in the 11th century.

To the north-west of Govan at the head of Loch Long is the triple peaked mass of Ben Arthur, which McArthur - the official historian of Clan Arthur - says would not have been named after an insignificant person.

South-west of Govan, at Arthurlie in Barrhead, is an ancient carved stone known as Arthurlie Cross, which local tradition remembers as the site of Arthur's camp.

"There are at least seven places called Arthur's Seat in Scotland and I'm up to about 40 Arthur place-names," said McArthur, who also claims that Loch Lomond, which lies a short distance from Dumbarton, used to be called "the Lake".

A new Disney-backed film, King Arthur, starring Clive Owen as Arthur, Keira Knightley as Guinevere, Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot and Stephen Dillane as Merlin is tipped to become the northern summer box office hit this year.

The Hollywood version claims Arthur was born on the eastern fringes of the Roman empire in Sarmatia, south of modern-day Russia, before coming to Britain, and the movie was shot in Ireland and America, Scotland's tourist industry is working hard to push the Celtic links.

The Scots even claim to know where the remains of King Arthur's legendary round table lies - in the garden of a house in Stenhousemuir.

"Stenhouse means round house," said Geoff Bailey of the Calandar House Museum at Falkirk. "It makes more sense that Arthur and his knights sat in a 'round house' rather than at a round table.

The number of overseas visitors to Scotland rose more than 20 per cent after Mel Gibson's movie Braveheart, and film tourism is now worth at least £15 million ($42.3 million) a year to the Scottish economy, so the race is on to establish an Arthur trail through Scotland.

To coincide with the release of the latest blockbuster, Scottish Borders Tourism is highlighting areas which local historians have cited as pointing to the Scottish Borders as home to Arthur and his armies.

Says Fiona Drane, marketing director of Scottish Borders Tourist Board: 'This film has the potential to reach a really wide audience, and that's why we have thrown our hat into the ring to claim Arthur as one of our own."

- INDEPENDENT