About
The Tintagel Old Post Office is one of the oldest and most atmospheric domestic buildings in Cornwall — a 14th-century manor farmhouse in the centre of Tintagel village whose dramatically undulating stone walls and organic roofline reveal the hand of medieval craftsmen who built without a straight line in sight. Constructed around 1380 and originally serving as a small manor farmhouse, the building survived centuries of change largely intact, making it an extraordinarily rare survival of late medieval domestic architecture in England.
Over the centuries the building served multiple purposes — farmhouse, manor, and (most famously) a post office for the local community during the Victorian era between 1844 and 1892, the period that gave it its enduring popular name. The building's massive slate roof, with its distinctive wave-like contours that follow the natural settling of centuries, is one of the most photographed features in Cornwall. Inside, the hall range and inner rooms retain original features including medieval fireplaces, stone floors, and timber work of exceptional age.
Tintagel village is world-famous for its associations with Arthurian legend — the cliff-top castle ruins (managed by English Heritage) stand nearby, attracting visitors who come in search of the mythical Camelot. The Old Post Office predates even the medieval Arthurian literature and represents the real material history of medieval Cornwall: the lives of ordinary people, the workings of a small Cornish community, and the remarkable continuity of vernacular building traditions. The National Trust has cared for the building since 1903, making it one of the earliest acquisitions in the Trust's portfolio and a testament to the enduring recognition of the building's significance.
A visit to the Old Post Office offers an intimate encounter with authentic medieval England: not a grand castle or aristocratic mansion, but the home of working people, remarkably preserved in the heart of one of Cornwall's most visited villages. The Victorian post office room is interpreted with period furnishings and equipment, and the walled garden provides a tranquil retreat from the busy village street.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday mornings in April or May before the peak summer season; the village becomes very busy in July and August
💡 Visitor Tips
- Book tickets in advance online during the summer peak season (July–August) — visitor numbers in Tintagel can be extremely high and the small medieval rooms mean capacity is limited
- The Old Post Office is a separate site from Tintagel Castle (English Heritage) — both charge separate admission unless you hold appropriate membership cards
- Wear sturdy, flat footwear — the medieval floors are uneven slate and stone, and there are low doorways throughout the building
- Visit early in the morning to enjoy the building in relative quiet before the village fills with visitors — the Old Post Office opens at 10:30
- National Trust members enter free — if you plan to visit multiple NT properties in Cornwall this season, membership pays for itself quickly
- The walled garden is a particularly peaceful spot to pause and look back at the famous undulating roofline — allow extra time to enjoy it
- Tintagel village has very limited parking and the roads are narrow — arrive early or use public transport if possible, particularly in high summer
Highlights
The Medieval Hall Range
The heart of the Old Post Office is the medieval hall, built around 1380 and surviving with extraordinary completeness. The hall features massive stone walls, a great open hearth, and original timber roof trusses that have supported the famous undulating slate roof for over 600 years. Stepping into this space is to stand in a room that has changed little since the late 14th century — the proportions, the materials, and the quality of light create an atmosphere of authentic antiquity that few buildings in England can match.
The hall reveals how medieval people of modest means lived and worked, far from the grand halls of castles and monasteries.
The Famous Undulating Slate Roof
The Old Post Office's most immediately recognisable feature is its extraordinary roof: great slabs of Cornish slate laid over centuries-old timber rafters, the whole surface rising and dipping in organic waves that follow the natural settlement of the structure over six centuries. This roof is not a restoration or a reconstruction — it is the original medieval material, endlessly repaired but never wholesale replaced, and it is this continuity that gives the building its remarkable character.
The roof has been photographed, painted, and sketched by countless artists attracted by its sculptural quality and its visible expression of great age.
The Victorian Post Office Room
The room in which the building served as a posting office for the local community from 1844 to 1892 has been interpreted with period furnishings and equipment that evoke the Victorian postal system — letter boxes, scales, ledgers, and the paraphernalia of a small rural post office in the age of the penny post and the expanding Victorian railway network.
This room allows visitors to experience the building in its most recent historic use, a fascinating contrast to the medieval hall and a reminder that the building served living communities continuously from the 14th century until the National Trust acquired it.
Medieval Domestic Architecture Surviving Intact
The Old Post Office is among the most complete surviving examples of medieval domestic architecture in England at the scale of an ordinary house rather than a great manor or castle. Most buildings of this date were demolished, substantially rebuilt, or so heavily restored as to lose their original character.
The Old Post Office survives because it was always relatively modest — never grand enough to justify wholesale rebuilding in more fashionable styles, never ruinous enough to be abandoned.
Its very ordinariness is what preserved it, and that ordinariness is precisely what makes it extraordinary today.
Collections
Medieval Hall
The original 14th-century hall with interpretation of medieval domestic life
Victorian Post Office Room
Furnished and interpreted as a Victorian rural post office, 1844–1892
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.