Sir Gawain and the Green Knight opens in Camelot, in the fictional kingdom of Logres, the poetical name for Britain used in much medieval Arthurian literature. Gawain’s quest for the Green Knight takes him from Camelot to the castle of Sir Bertilak--later revealed as the Green Knight himself--where Gawain is lodged between Christmas and New Year’s while awaiting his appointment with the Green Knight. Gawain’s route through North Wales and into England is described in what seem to be realistic terms. He passes Anglesey, the Holy Head, and the Wirral in North Wales before approaching Bertilak's castle, named Hautdesert, in the modern Peak District, which in the 14th century was a royal forest (Twomey 2013).

These place-names, together with the landscape features around Hautdesert, have led many scholars to attempt to map Gawain's route from North Wales into England, and to identify the location of Hautdesert and the Green Chapel, where Gawain meets the Green Knight. Why the poet would lead Gawain from the fictional Camelot into the very heart of his own dialect area is of course a matter of conjecture. Perhaps he wished to amuse his audience with references to their home region (Twomey 2000), in which case Bertilak may have been based on a local lord.

On July 27, 2002, four American medievalists visiting Wales for the 20th congress of the International Arthurian Society--Michael Twomey, Joyce Coleman, Fiona Tolhurst, and Jean Jost--set out from Bangor to see the sites in Wales and England where Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (henceforth SGGK) is set. In July, 2005, and July, 2011, Michael Twomey returned to these places and took additional photos for this site.

This is an account of these journeys. Along the way, there will be links to photographs of the sites we visited, and at any time the reader may check the scholarly arguments about the various locations by clicking on “Supporting Evidence and Bibliography.” To move to another section, click on the title in the frame at the left.

Michael Twomey

5 February 2004

20 October 2014

17 September 2020

All text and photographs on this site, except for photographs by Fiona Tolhurst and Joyce Coleman, are copyright © Michael Twomey. Photographs by Fiona Tolhurst and Joyce Coleman are copyright © by Fiona Tolhurst and Joyce Coleman. Arrangements for visiting the site of Poulton Abbey were made by Jean Jost.