Once upon a time there was a kingdom called Northumbria that was ruled by King Aethelfrith, when he married to strengthen his kingdom, he renamed his fortress after his new wife Bebba (Bebbanburgh later became pronounce Bamburgh)*. At the time Bamburgh castle and it's king was the most powerful force in northern England, and Bamburgh castle would be one of the most powerful castles in England for hundreds of years until the vikings attacked around the 10th century. Bamburgh's prominence was such that it had links with early christianity through St Aidan who was bought to neighbouring Holy Island by King Oswald, who also became a saint following his death.
The castle that stands today, has been rebuilt and renovated over the years, due to being attacked and neglected. For much of it's history this has been a royal castle, and was built and maintained by them as an important defensive fortress. Some of the main keep dates from around 1163 when the castle, had the great tower started for the sum of £4*, now that sounds a bargain although I'm guessing it was worth a bit more then :)
Today the castle is in owned by the Armstrong family, who bought it in 1894*, at the time Lord Armstrong of Cragside (see earlier review), saw it for sale in the Times and decided to buy it for £60,000*. He did quite a bit of renovation to the castle, as it was in need of it when he bought it. It's funny my first thought when I realised he owned both Cragside and Bamburgh castle, was why would you buy Cragside if you owned Bamburgh castle, but I now see it was the other way around :)
Bamburgh castle is probably the castle most recognised, outside Northumberland, unless you were watching Harry Potter (that's Alnwick castle), as it is the one on most advertising, due to it's magnificent appearance.
I visited on a windy day in February, the timing being because I had bought a Groupon deal for £12 for 2 people and it ran out at the end of February (I bought it in December, not realising the castle was only open on a weekend up to February). I visited with my dad one Friday, as that's the day we go out together :) Normal price is £9.95 for adults, £9 for senior citizens, £4.50 for children or £25 for a family (2 adults 3 children), so we saved £6.95 (my dad is a senior, not me :) )
**Our Visit**
The day we visited was initially windy but dry, and we really hit on as, as we were leaving a storm hit and it started to rain heavily. Bamburgh is on the Northumberland coast about 42 miles north of Newcastle, it's about 30 miles from us and took us about an hour to get there going up the A1 and then following the route across to the coast. On the way back we came the coastal route which took maybe 15 minutes longer, and this is considering we were taking it steady due to the weather.
Bamburgh castle is high up above Bamburgh village, overlooking the sea (150 feet above), and sand dunes. It affords great views of the neighbouring Farne islands, and Holy island, as well as the sea and beach. We parked in the council car park at the bottom, paying £1.80 for 2 hours, we chose here as we had visited the castle years before and remembered the parking above being limited. The council car park now offers free parking. Walking up to the castle is quite steep, and at the top we discovered the parking has now been extended and there is a reasonable sized car park with all day parking for £2 :) Still I needed the exercise :)
The entrance to the castle is further up hill through a large gatehouse, with the ticket office being in the constable tower further up. From here you are outside the main section of the castle in the outer ward, the path is quite steep, and you can either follow it up, or walk along the battery (outer defensive wall) as we did. We chose this way so that we could admire the view of the sea, and the nearby islands, although it was quite overcast so we didn't get the best view. There are also lots of cannons along here :)
**The Outer Ward**
The battery, and path both lead to the outer ward. There are a lot of buildings here, although the castle grounds themselves are reasonably compact. The ground here is hilly, with the ground sloping rapidly down to the west ward. In the outer ward, is the old stables, which now house the toilets, and a cafe on the left hand side. There is also some stocks on the green, and a replica of the King's of Northumbria's royal stone seat (which I had a seat in). At the bottom of the slope is another gateway which leads into the west ward.
In the west ward there is a picnic area, 2 sites where they are doing an archeological dig (in summer you can watch them), the armstrong aviation museum, and an old mill. The museum is quite small, but we both found it really interesting with huge engines, and old cameras that had been used on planes. There was also a model of a spitfire, and a large gun.
The walls on this side of the castle give a great view of the village of Bamburgh.
**The Inner Ward**
Uphill is the inner ward of the castle, this has an inner curtain wall, from which you again get a great view of the sea. There are also the remains of the chapel, with a large bell. The entrance to the state rooms, and keep is here. There is one entrance, that is open as you actually go through the state rooms to get to the keep.
**The castle, and state rooms**
While you can't explore all the rooms, as there are private apartments above, the parts you can see are interesting. My favourite was the King's Hall, which is a beautiful room with a lovely wooden beamed ceiling which you can admire with mirrors that are provided. In here there was a lovely guide, who we had a nice chat with. This room has a minstrel's gallery at one end, and a lovely seating area (roped off) raised up at the other, the room is actually from the victorian times as it was renovated and designed by Lord Armstrong. In total I think there are about ten rooms that you can look around, including the rooms in the keep itself. Other highlights for me were the secret stairway in the keep's wall, the model of the castle, the well (dug through over 40 feet of solid whetstone), and the victorian hoover (I like my old gadgets :) ). There were a further two guides in other rooms, both of which were friendly and knowledgeable.
The keep leads to the shop, and from here you can visit the dungeon. This has several figures showing old torture methods, and was pretty interesting. Next to the shop there is also the archeological museum, which houses various finds from the castle's grounds. The exit opens back out onto the outer ward. From here we took some more photos before hurrying away as by this time we were over our parking time (not that we expected a ticket as Bamburgh is pretty deserted in winter), and it was bucketing down and windy.
**The cafe and shop**
We visited the cafe for a warming cup of tea during our visit. This is a nice room and the prices were reasonable, about £5 for a sandwich. The drinks were slightly more expensive, at around £4 for a pot of tea for two.
The shop has the usual range of gifts, as well as some local wine and foods. There is also a small art gallery, with some lovely pictures you can buy in the shop.
**So what did I think?**
We both really enjoyed our visit, the only downside was the weather as the views weren't as clear as we might have liked, and quite a lot of it is outside. However, as they say "every cloud has a silver lining", and the weather and time of year meant that there were only a few other visits so we could get some great photos without lots of people in them, and we had plenty of time to see what we wanted to see, as well as to talk to the guides.
The grounds and buildings are really well looked after, and there are plenty of signposts telling you where you are and what things are, which we found really useful. It is also possible to buy a guidebook or hire an audio tour, although we didn't bother preferring to discover things ourselves. As said inside there are also several guides, who are knowledgeable and friendly.
Bamburgh castle surprised me as when I visited it in the past I didn't really enjoy it, and my memory was just of lots of plates. I was left feeling that the best thing about it was the outside, but now I have been again I have completely changed my mind, as there is so much to see. From their web site I can see that they have won several awards, including one from trip adviser, and I can see why. Everything feels really well thought out, informative and welcoming, I can imagine that if I visit again in summer, while it would be more crowded you would still enjoy yourself, and it would be pleasant to enjoy a picnic overlooking the sea.
We spent about 2 and a half hours there in total, including getting a cup of tea in the cafe before going into the castle proper. We took advantage of the walk back down to the car park, to take some more photos of the castle, although by then we were pretty wet.
**Anything else?**
The castle has pretty good disabled access, including a separate cafe room, as the cafe entrance is upstairs. By it's nature parts of the castle are not wheelchair accessible, but a surprising amount is, and again this shows how much thought has been put into it, including tarmac paths which while steep provide a good surface.
The castle is also available for weddings, and wedding receptions, and if I wasn't already happily married I'd be tempted as it would be a great location :)
The castle is open everyday until the 2nd of November, 10 am until 5pm
For more information there website is http://www.bamburghcastle.com/index.php
*Bamburgh castle website
This is updated from my review on Ciao
The castle that stands today, has been rebuilt and renovated over the years, due to being attacked and neglected. For much of it's history this has been a royal castle, and was built and maintained by them as an important defensive fortress. Some of the main keep dates from around 1163 when the castle, had the great tower started for the sum of £4*, now that sounds a bargain although I'm guessing it was worth a bit more then :)
Today the castle is in owned by the Armstrong family, who bought it in 1894*, at the time Lord Armstrong of Cragside (see earlier review), saw it for sale in the Times and decided to buy it for £60,000*. He did quite a bit of renovation to the castle, as it was in need of it when he bought it. It's funny my first thought when I realised he owned both Cragside and Bamburgh castle, was why would you buy Cragside if you owned Bamburgh castle, but I now see it was the other way around :)
Bamburgh castle is probably the castle most recognised, outside Northumberland, unless you were watching Harry Potter (that's Alnwick castle), as it is the one on most advertising, due to it's magnificent appearance.
I visited on a windy day in February, the timing being because I had bought a Groupon deal for £12 for 2 people and it ran out at the end of February (I bought it in December, not realising the castle was only open on a weekend up to February). I visited with my dad one Friday, as that's the day we go out together :) Normal price is £9.95 for adults, £9 for senior citizens, £4.50 for children or £25 for a family (2 adults 3 children), so we saved £6.95 (my dad is a senior, not me :) )
**Our Visit**
The day we visited was initially windy but dry, and we really hit on as, as we were leaving a storm hit and it started to rain heavily. Bamburgh is on the Northumberland coast about 42 miles north of Newcastle, it's about 30 miles from us and took us about an hour to get there going up the A1 and then following the route across to the coast. On the way back we came the coastal route which took maybe 15 minutes longer, and this is considering we were taking it steady due to the weather.
Bamburgh castle is high up above Bamburgh village, overlooking the sea (150 feet above), and sand dunes. It affords great views of the neighbouring Farne islands, and Holy island, as well as the sea and beach. We parked in the council car park at the bottom, paying £1.80 for 2 hours, we chose here as we had visited the castle years before and remembered the parking above being limited. The council car park now offers free parking. Walking up to the castle is quite steep, and at the top we discovered the parking has now been extended and there is a reasonable sized car park with all day parking for £2 :) Still I needed the exercise :)
The entrance to the castle is further up hill through a large gatehouse, with the ticket office being in the constable tower further up. From here you are outside the main section of the castle in the outer ward, the path is quite steep, and you can either follow it up, or walk along the battery (outer defensive wall) as we did. We chose this way so that we could admire the view of the sea, and the nearby islands, although it was quite overcast so we didn't get the best view. There are also lots of cannons along here :)
**The Outer Ward**
The battery, and path both lead to the outer ward. There are a lot of buildings here, although the castle grounds themselves are reasonably compact. The ground here is hilly, with the ground sloping rapidly down to the west ward. In the outer ward, is the old stables, which now house the toilets, and a cafe on the left hand side. There is also some stocks on the green, and a replica of the King's of Northumbria's royal stone seat (which I had a seat in). At the bottom of the slope is another gateway which leads into the west ward.
In the west ward there is a picnic area, 2 sites where they are doing an archeological dig (in summer you can watch them), the armstrong aviation museum, and an old mill. The museum is quite small, but we both found it really interesting with huge engines, and old cameras that had been used on planes. There was also a model of a spitfire, and a large gun.
The walls on this side of the castle give a great view of the village of Bamburgh.
**The Inner Ward**
Uphill is the inner ward of the castle, this has an inner curtain wall, from which you again get a great view of the sea. There are also the remains of the chapel, with a large bell. The entrance to the state rooms, and keep is here. There is one entrance, that is open as you actually go through the state rooms to get to the keep.
**The castle, and state rooms**
While you can't explore all the rooms, as there are private apartments above, the parts you can see are interesting. My favourite was the King's Hall, which is a beautiful room with a lovely wooden beamed ceiling which you can admire with mirrors that are provided. In here there was a lovely guide, who we had a nice chat with. This room has a minstrel's gallery at one end, and a lovely seating area (roped off) raised up at the other, the room is actually from the victorian times as it was renovated and designed by Lord Armstrong. In total I think there are about ten rooms that you can look around, including the rooms in the keep itself. Other highlights for me were the secret stairway in the keep's wall, the model of the castle, the well (dug through over 40 feet of solid whetstone), and the victorian hoover (I like my old gadgets :) ). There were a further two guides in other rooms, both of which were friendly and knowledgeable.
The keep leads to the shop, and from here you can visit the dungeon. This has several figures showing old torture methods, and was pretty interesting. Next to the shop there is also the archeological museum, which houses various finds from the castle's grounds. The exit opens back out onto the outer ward. From here we took some more photos before hurrying away as by this time we were over our parking time (not that we expected a ticket as Bamburgh is pretty deserted in winter), and it was bucketing down and windy.
**The cafe and shop**
We visited the cafe for a warming cup of tea during our visit. This is a nice room and the prices were reasonable, about £5 for a sandwich. The drinks were slightly more expensive, at around £4 for a pot of tea for two.
The shop has the usual range of gifts, as well as some local wine and foods. There is also a small art gallery, with some lovely pictures you can buy in the shop.
**So what did I think?**
We both really enjoyed our visit, the only downside was the weather as the views weren't as clear as we might have liked, and quite a lot of it is outside. However, as they say "every cloud has a silver lining", and the weather and time of year meant that there were only a few other visits so we could get some great photos without lots of people in them, and we had plenty of time to see what we wanted to see, as well as to talk to the guides.
The grounds and buildings are really well looked after, and there are plenty of signposts telling you where you are and what things are, which we found really useful. It is also possible to buy a guidebook or hire an audio tour, although we didn't bother preferring to discover things ourselves. As said inside there are also several guides, who are knowledgeable and friendly.
Bamburgh castle surprised me as when I visited it in the past I didn't really enjoy it, and my memory was just of lots of plates. I was left feeling that the best thing about it was the outside, but now I have been again I have completely changed my mind, as there is so much to see. From their web site I can see that they have won several awards, including one from trip adviser, and I can see why. Everything feels really well thought out, informative and welcoming, I can imagine that if I visit again in summer, while it would be more crowded you would still enjoy yourself, and it would be pleasant to enjoy a picnic overlooking the sea.
We spent about 2 and a half hours there in total, including getting a cup of tea in the cafe before going into the castle proper. We took advantage of the walk back down to the car park, to take some more photos of the castle, although by then we were pretty wet.
**Anything else?**
The castle has pretty good disabled access, including a separate cafe room, as the cafe entrance is upstairs. By it's nature parts of the castle are not wheelchair accessible, but a surprising amount is, and again this shows how much thought has been put into it, including tarmac paths which while steep provide a good surface.
The castle is also available for weddings, and wedding receptions, and if I wasn't already happily married I'd be tempted as it would be a great location :)
The castle is open everyday until the 2nd of November, 10 am until 5pm
For more information there website is http://www.bamburghcastle.com/index.php
*Bamburgh castle website
This is updated from my review on Ciao
