Saw three very different castles today. One restored and used as a family home in the last century, one complete medieval ruins and the third being used as a hotel.

First stop Bamburgh Castle. It is right on the coast and back up close to the Holy Island which we could see in the distance. It is not quite as large as Alnwick but with the outer fortifications it seems quite large.

The location has been a home for some sort of fortification since the 4th century and used by King Oswald and King Oswui both early kings on Northumbria, which we heard a lot about in the trip. They were part of the Cuthbert time period during early period of Christianity and Viking raids. Oswui was a big believer in relics and collected many during his kingship including various body parts of his brother Oswald and supposedly relics from the Apostle John and a gold cross made from the chains of Peter and Paul both of the latter gifts from Pope Vitalian around 665. The Venerable Bede wrote quite a lot about Oswui which why there is so much documentation on him and his brother.

Back to the castle, a small part of what is still there dares to 1095 and was built to defend the border from the Scottish during William the Conqueror’s time. The keep or the large square building is all that really survives from that time.

The castle was an important defense up through the 1500 and at one time held the king of Scotland as a prisoner. It was also subject to a 9 month siege by Richard Neville during the war of the roses. Richard known as the kingmaker and the Neville family were quite important during this time period and along with the Percy family pretty much controlled the north.

After the Elizabeth the castle was less important and was held by the Forester family until the 1700 and fell into ruins. The castle was sold to the Bishop of Durham whose wife was the sister to the last Forester who owned it. Unlike her brother she pushed for the repair of the castle and the bishop created a board of trustees to use the castle for local services like a hospital and school. Repairs began and the original keep was restored. It was sold to William Armstrong the owner of Cragside which now made that visit make sense. Armstrong rebuilt the great hall and other buildings that were built during the 1400.

We had a tour through the castle and you started in the newer portions and worked our way to the old keep. The castle is also the site for the TV show the Last Kingdom and there were exhibits of the costumes in the great hall.

The keep held the treasure of the castle as far as the historians believed, a part of a sword from the seventh century. The sword was found in 1960 lost for 40 years and discovered again in 2001 in a suitcase in a garage. The sword was made by 6 strands of iron welded together into the blade. It is unusual for a sword of that time period and thought to be owned by a king. Mike is sure it was King Oswald’s sword.

Castle 2 – Warkworth- built in the 12 century by King Henry II and given to Roger fitz Richard. Roger’s son Robert inherited the castle and made improvements with his backing by King John, who stayed in the castle in 1213. King Edward I stayed in 1292. So quite a lot of use for those state bedrooms that they all seem to have but never use. Edward II put resources into increasing the defenses which was a good thing. The Scot’s laid siege twice but never got in.

The Percy family got hold of the castle 1345 while they were still mere barons. They added to it as their importance grew. Eventually the Barons became Dukes and they held the castle or what is left of it until 1922 when they gave it to the Office of Works which was the precursor to the English Heritage, which oversees ruins. (The National Trust of Historic Houses does places with furnishing English Heritage does ruins.)

Needless to say the castle is in ruins and has been for centuries. However, this allowed us to see it as it was and how life went on then. The main keep was still pretty much intact. Seems a later duke restored it to use for guys weekends sometime in the 1800. So the floors, ceilings and everything in there were still good. The roof was off all of the other buildings but parts of it still stood. The keep was pretty fascinating with all these little tight staircases that led up to the second floor great hall and solars (where the Duke and his family hung out) there were stairs from the kitchen up to the buttery and the ale house up to the back of the great hall where the high table would have been located. That way they could get their wine and ale quickly. Stairs around to little hidden rooms where the bailiff and stewards worked and kept records. Pretty much every where you looked there was some little nook or cranny.

Julian walked us through with his dramatic story telling setting the scene for a day at the castle during the height of the Percy dominance. Had I walked through it in my own and read the posted descriptions of the room it would have been good but I am so glad that we Julian there to describe everything.

I generally like to see castles that are still being used today by the family and not just open for display. I like to see how they have been adapted over the years to accommodate the way we now live. However, there was something to be said about seeing something pretty much unchanged (except for deterioration due to the no roof in some places) as to how it was during the medieval era.

After touring the ruins we headed back to Maften Hall to dress for dinner and head to our final castle of the day – Langly Castle. Langley has been converted to a hotel so not much left of its original interior.

It was a great end to a great day. My 3 castle day was fantastic and everything I could have hoped for. Can’t wait to have another one.