Royal Legacy at Bamburgh

Another day … another castle … and today we are off to Bamburgh, just ten minutes up the road. It looks very imposing, sitting high on a cliff.

First home to a fort of the Celtic Britons called Din Guarie, it was captured by the Anglian King, Ida the Flamebearer in 547AD. His grandson named it Bebbanburg after his queen, and for centuries, this was the Royal Capital of the Kingdom of Northumbria until devastating Viking raids in 993AD ransacked and burned the ancient Anglo-Saxon royal citadel. When the Normans came in the C12th, they built the stone keep as a border garrison against the Scots and it remained a royal castle, protecting the border until it came under cannon fire in the War of the Roses.

After centuries of withstanding assault, it was the first castle in England to be destroyed by gunfire. Later, no longer required by the Crown, it was given to the Forster family, and when the last heir married Lord Crewe, a trust was set up which enabled it to be restored for the community providing a hospital, school and even the first coastguard station. By 1894, the money ran out and it was sold to William Armstrong, the industrialist and owner of Cragside, who demolished the Georgian additions and rebuilt the medieval hall as his legacy.

It remains in the family’s care today, and the present owner who used to be a volunteer RNLI crew member with Seahouses Lifeboat, is very proud that the first ever lifeboat was commissioned and launched at Bamburgh by Dr John Sharp, a trustee at the Castle in 1786.

The hall is certainly impressive, with a vaulted wooden roof and panelling, decorated with tapestries, paintings and treasures.

We also went through part of the keep, the oldest part of the castle.

Afterwards we walked into the town for some lunch …

… then went to the Grace Darling museum to find out more about Bamburgh’s heroine and how she helped in the rescue of 9 people from the doomed SS Forfarshire in 1838 when she was only 22.