Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle was once the capital of a kingdom, and in 1464 it became the first English castle to fall to cannon fire. It stands on a rock of dark dolerite.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- On the Northumberland coast at Bamburgh, facing the Farne Islands and Holy Island
- Built or opened
- Fortified from at least the 6th century; Norman keep 12th century; restored 1894–1904
- Height or size
- Stands on a crag of the Great Whin Sill roughly 45 metres above the sea
- Early name
- Bebbanburh, said to honour Queen Bebba, wife of King Æthelfrith
- Landmark moment
- Besieged with artillery by the Earl of Warwick in 1464 during the Wars of the Roses
- Rescued by
- Lord Armstrong, the Tyneside armaments magnate, who bought it in 1894
- Owners today
- The Armstrong family, who run it as a visitor attraction
- Rock type
- Dolerite, the same hard igneous rock that carries Hadrian's Wall across the north
A royal capital on a lump of dark rock
Long before Northumberland was a county, Bamburgh was the seat of kings. The Anglo-Saxon kings of Bernicia ruled from this headland, and later the kings of Northumbria. At its height their kingdom reached from the Humber to the Forth. The crag was chosen for good reason. It is a natural outcrop of the Great Whin Sill, a hard sheet of dolerite that also carries Hadrian's Wall. This dark igneous rock formed when magma cooled underground, rather than erupting as lava. It rises straight from the dunes and gives sweeping views of the sea and the coast road. The early name was Bebbanburh, said to honour Bebba, queen of King Æthelfrith. Behind it is an older British fortress, which is why the place feels so settled in its role.
The saint who died against a wooden buttress
Bamburgh is bound up with the birth of English Christianity. King Oswald, who took the throne in the 630s, invited the Irish monk Aidan to preach in Northumbria. Aidan founded the monastery on nearby Lindisfarne, with the royal fortress just across the sands. According to Bede, Aidan died at Bamburgh in 651. He was said to have been leaning against a post or buttress of the church when he died. Bede adds a story that the timber survived fires that destroyed the surrounding buildings. The parish church of St Aidan in the village below still honours him.
The first English castle to meet its match in gunpowder
In 1095 the castle's lord, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, rebelled against William Rufus. The king besieged the castle and found it too tough to take. Mowbray was lured out and captured elsewhere, and his wife is said to have held Bamburgh for a time afterwards, before the garrison surrendered. The real shock came in the Wars of the Roses. In 1464 the Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker, brought heavy guns to the walls, where the Lancastrian garrison was commanded by Sir Ralph Grey. The cannon battered the defences until the castle fell. It is often called the first English castle to be defeated by gunpowder artillery. Grey was later executed, and the castle's fighting days were over.
From ruin to charity to Victorian fantasy
After the Wars of the Roses Bamburgh declined. In 1704 Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, bought it. His trustees used the money for good works, including a school, medical help for the poor and a system to help shipwrecked sailors. Then came William Armstrong, the Tyneside engineer who made his fortune in armaments and hydraulic machinery. He bought Bamburgh in 1894 and set out to bring it back. The work was carried out under architect Charles Ferguson and went on after Armstrong's death in 1900. What you see is a Norman castle heavily revived by the Victorians. That restoration is still argued over. Some think it buried history under new masonry, while others say the castle would not have survived without it.
Myths, novels and a very famous Uhtred
Bamburgh has attracted legends. Arthurian writers have linked it to Sir Lancelot's castle of Joyous Gard, though nothing ties it to a real Arthur. The nearby Spindleston Heugh is the setting for the folk tale of the Laidly Worm, a princess turned into a dragon by her stepmother. More recently, Bebbanburg became the ancestral home of Uhtred, the hero of Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom novels. Uhtred the Bold, an earl of Northumbria who died in 1016, was a real figure, but the fictional Uhtred is the creation of the author. Some real discoveries have been just as striking. Archaeologists from the Bamburgh Research Project have been digging here since 1996. The Bamburgh Beast, a small Anglo-Saxon gold plaque found within the castle during Brian Hope-Taylor's excavations in 1971, shows the skill of the craftsmen of the day.
What to look for when you're there
Start outside. The best view is from the beach, where the castle seems to grow from the dunes. On a clear day you can see the Farne Islands and Holy Island out to sea. Inside, look for the Norman keep, the great hall and the displays about the Armstrong family and the castle's long story. The armoury and the cellars add to the picture of a working fortress. Then walk down to the village and the churchyard of St Aidan's. Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter who helped rescue shipwreck survivors from the Farne Islands in 1838, is buried here. A museum devoted to her stands nearby.
Notable people
- Ida of Bernicia
- Æthelfrith
- Bebba
- Oswald of Northumbria
- Saint Aidan
- Robert de Mowbray
- William Rufus
- Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
- Sir Ralph Grey
- Lord Crewe
- William Armstrong
- Charles Ferguson
- Grace Darling
- Brian Hope-Taylor
Test yourself
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Lindisfarne
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Alnwick Castle
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Hadrian's Wall
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