The legendary King Arthur was a North of England hero and Camelot was in Cumbria.

That is the message of a new Hollywood blockbuster movie based on an academic theory.

The Touchstone Pictures film King Arthur, which stars Clive Owen in the title role and Keira Knightly as Guinevere, opens in America today and in Britain on July 30.

Eric Robson, chairman of Cumbria Tourist Board, said: "I am delighted Hollywood has recognised that King Arthur is really a northern hero. The evidence is overwhelming that King Arthur and the stories about him originated in this part of the country."

John Matthews, Oxford-based consultant historian on the film, said: "I think the Northern Arthur works better than the South-West or Wales. In the film most of the action is set in and around Hadrian's Wall."

Mr Matthews said two Roman forts in Cumbria are at the centre of the claim.

He said Birdoswald, near Gilsland, has long been associated with the site of Arthur's last battle, against his son Mordred at Camlan or Camelon.

The story relates how Arthur was carried to Avalon to be healed of his wounds.

Mr Matthews said another of the forts along the Wall west of Carlisle is called Avallana and lies just over 20 miles from Birdoswald.

For some years it has been believed that the Roman name of Birdoswald was Camboglanna - which ties in with the place name of Camlan.

But English Heritage archaeologist Tony Wilmot, who spent nine years digging at Birdoswald and has written two books on the fort, said that it was accepted that the name of Birdoswald was Banna and that Camboglanna was the next fort along the Wall. He also said the Roman name of Avallana was in fact Aballava.

He said: "The Northern Arthur is a well respected theory which was first raised in the 1930s. But it sounds like they are using out of date material and to claim that Aballava is Avalon is overdoing it."

But Mr Wilmot said that the Birdoswald excavations had revealed evidence of a high status Dark Ages settlement amid the ruins of the Roman fort in the 5th or 6th Centuries - the time of Arthur.

Mr Matthews's view is supported by the historian Michael Wood, who is currently working on a new programme for the BBC about King Arthur.

In his book In Search of the Dark Ages, Mr Wood said the Arthurian stories "surprisingly do not take us to the South-West or to Wales, but to Cumbria, southern Scotland, and the ancient Kingdom of Rheged" - in modern-day Cumbria.

Ken Campbell, chairman of the Arthurian Society in Cumbria, who is working on plans for a new trail, The Lost Realm of King Arthur, said: "Many of the stories about Arthur originated around firesides in Cumbria. After the Romans evacuated this area it was plunged into chaos and the Arthurian legends are based on the exploits of local chiefs or warlords."

Mr Robson points to another factor linking Cumbria to the stories.

He said: "It should come as no surprise that the county which includes the Lake District should be at the heart of the Arthurian legends. Where else would people expect to find the Lady of the Lake?"

It was Bassenthwaite Lake which inspired Tennyson's description of the lake into which Excalibur is thrown after Arthur's death. He wrote Morte d'Arthur while staying at Mirehouse, which looks out over the lake.

Page 2: A Roman child?