Bamburgh Castle

 Bamburgh Castle, from the land side

Above is the first, very imposing, sight you get of Bamburgh Castle if you are coming from the North as we were.

We parked in the car park by the castle and looked out to sea to be greeted by the Farn Islands. It is a group of 28 islands which are of great interest for birders (who will hope to see Puffin, Eider, Razorbill, Guillemot, Shag, Kittiwake and Fulmar). The island you can see is Inner Farn and the two buildings which can be made out are the lighthouse (on the right) and a tower. What this low angle lost was the long sandy beach, where a ceaseless promenade of people were striding out.

We entered the castle through a Gate House as you might expect and emerged into a large open area with an imposing Keep to the right.

 

We quickly discovered some key facts about Bamburgh. The rocky outcrop was fortified from as early as 500 AD. The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. After a revolt in 1095 supported by the castle's owner, it became the property of the king. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery. By the early 1600s, Bamburgh had become ruinous and in private hands, those of the local Forster family. It later became a hospital and a school, before being bought in 1894 by the wealthy local industrialist, Lord Armstrong (of Cragside), who began the work of restoration but died before it was completed. His descendants carried on his work and remain the castle's owners.

This is the range of buildings to the left of the Keep. A miscellany of styles is visible.

Entering the door on the left you are soon ushered into the Great Hall, a fine, late Victorian building.

In the next room I was delighted by this lovely pattern.

Now into the Keep. The upstairs rooms don't seem very Norman, bit when you get to the undercroft you gain a very strong sense of the weight bearing down on you.

I was excited by my first sighting of Bamburgh Castle, but by the end I felt a bit disappointed. The Keep is a wonderful sight from the outside, and the Great Hall was imposing, but much of the interior and most of the exterior was not very interesting.

To complete our visit we had a short wander round the village of about 500 people. I was delighted to spot some former almshouses (dating from 1807). The nearest ones remain their character, but the two furthest are now used as shops and have lost theirs.

More or less opposite is the former water pump.