Bamburgh was the one of three major castles we visited while on vacation in North East England in August. The site has had forts dating back to around 420 AD (1,600 years) with the older elements of the current castle dating from the Norman period (around 1,000 years old).
The castle is privately owned, which is interesting in itself, and I found it to have an eclectic mix of building styles, as a result of changes and additions over the last 1000 years.
In the above picture you can see a Norman style looking main keep on the right with a more modern (but still centuries old) looking addition to the left - the mix of styles can be clearly seen.
And again in the above pic you can see the change from red brick to grey stone midway through this section. The courtyard here was lovely and they had loads of games out for people to play, like giant knots and crosses, and croquet (did I spell it correctly ?).
Above is the main gate, which is one of the older parts of the existing castle, which you can compare to the gate on the other side of the castle in the pic below.
The gate above is clearly much newer and more about style and beauty, compared to the main gate which is clearly all about defence.
Above is another view of that main Norman Keep, and you can see the age in the bricks - they are well weathered. Its such a pretty design and reminds me of the Tower of London.
I loved the section of wall above - you can see around 5-6 different periods of build and repair within it - quite interesting indeed !
The castle itself was well set up for visitors young and old. And the grounds were quite large with lots of displays and things to do, along with all the usual facilities like a restaurant (with lovely cakes !) and a gift shop. You could easily be entertained here for a number of hours without getting bored.
The castle is perched on a high rock overlooking the sea, and on the other side lies the town of Bamburgh which would have grown up around the castle. Below you can see the town cricket ground in the fore ground.
I quite like the part of the castle in the pic above - I liked the squareness and angular features of it. In this pic you can also appreciate the commanding view the position has over the sea, and hence why there have been fortifications on this site for so long.
Another nice view above - I love the iron work in the drainage pipes. These would have been externally fitted years after original the construction, probably dating to around the 19th century.
We really enjoyed our visit to the castle. It kept us entertained for an afternoon, and as can be see we were really lucky with the weather.
And can you believe this is still privately owned ? So this is someone's home ! We also visited the main chambers inside the castle, so I'll provide the pics for that within another post - again quite eclectic, just like the castle itself !
Anyway, well worth the visit in my book, and we would go back and visit again if in the area.
