Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh is a beautifully located castle built on basalt deposits high above a sandy beach, overlooking the North Sea and the Farne Islands. The current building dates from the 12th century, having been restored by the first Lord Crewe in the 1750s and then by the first Lord Armstrong at the end of the Victorian era. The castle was attacked during the Wars of the Roses and became the first English castle to surrender to an artillery siege.

Castle interior

Sixteen rooms at Bamburgh Castle are open to the public, including the Crewe Museum Room, originally a medieval kitchen but now made available for interesting exhibits ranging from an oak table found on Emperor Hadrian's 2nd century bridge over the River Tyne to 7th century gold. The Royal Hall is a magnificent restored medieval hall with a gallery of minstrels. The oldest surviving part of Bamburgh Castle is a 12th-century fortress, part of which has been adapted to display medieval and Napoleonic armor. Among the exhibits is a magnificent 7th-century sword found here in 1960, known as the "Bamburg Sword", which probably belonged to a Saxon king. The newest room open to the public, the archaeological museum with exhibits on local history and archaeological research.

Memory location

Visitors can also enjoy the aviation artifacts museum at Bamburgh Castle, featuring engines, propellers and more salvaged from crashed planes dating from 1910 to World War II. And in the village of Bamburgh is the ancient church of St. Aidan, which can date back to the 7th century. The graveyard contains the grave of Grace Darling, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper in the Farne Islands, who helped rescue the crew of a ship that had run aground during a violent storm.

Beauty and practicality

From the village of Bamburgh along the wide main street to the cricket field, there is an excellent panorama of the local castle. But the best views of the castle are from the beach, when the tide goes down and the golden sunset illuminates the battlements, it's hard to imagine a more picturesque castle in all of England. And inside the walls there is a decorated hall of the stone fortress of Bamburg. Here you can see a Saxon well carved straight through a solid rock for 21 meters. This well was famous for its clear water, and without it, Bamburgh Castle would never have existed and could not withstand a siege.