Bamburgh
 Castles |
Dominating both village and coast is the enormous stone pile of Bamburgh Castle. A huge curtain wall encircles this multi-turreted 12th cent castle, while its lofty keep is perched dramatically on a 150ft high coastal crag. The castle is visible as a landmark for miles around, and has been much used by film crews as a ‘medieval' fortress.
Because of its prominent position, the site upon which the castle was built has been defended down the centuries, in fact since the Iron Age. A fort was constructed on the site by invading Angles in AD547, and was given by king Ethelfrith to his wife Bebba - Bebba's burgh eventually became Bamburgh. The kings of Northumbria were crowned here. Vikings intermittently sacked it until the site eventually fell to the all-conquering Normans, who began to build the rocky fortress that remains to us today. The great keep was built in the 1150's, and later additions created a near impregnable fortress, that is until 1464 when it became the first castle ever to fall to artillery - Edward IV's army shelled it into submission. The castle gradually slipped into dereliction until the early 18 th cent, when the Bishop of Durham started the repairs that were continued by Dr John Sharpe, and completed by the Victorian inventor and industrialist Lord Armstrong.
The pretty village of Bamburgh has a number of 18 th century cottages, and a parish church that stands on the site of an ancient chapel used by St Aidan in the mid 7 th century - the church contains a beautiful early 13 th century chancel. The village museum is devoted to the dramatic story of Grace Darling, a lighthouse-keepers daughter born in Bamburgh in 1815. The 23-year-old Grace rowed-out with her father in 1838 to rescue, successfully, five people from a stricken steamboat, in one of the most violent storms ever recorded in the area. The heroine's tomb may be found in the churchyard, where it is much visited.