Bamburgh Castle

“ The little town of Bamburgh has two striking features—the great castle upon its stern rock, and the wild coast-line at its feet where dash the storms of the North Sea.
To-day it is not important enough to have a railway station of its own; yet once it was the capital of the great Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Its original name was Bebbanburgh, so called after Queen Bebba; of its Saxon fortress hardly a trace remains, the present building being partly the old Norman castle, with repairs and additions of a later date. ”

“ BAMBURGH, or Bamborough, a village in the Berwick-upon-Tweed parliamentary division of Northumberland, England, on the sea-coast, 21/2 m. E. of Belford station on the North Eastern railway, and 54 m. N. of Newcastle. It was a royal borough previous to the Norman Conquest and returned two members to parliament in the reign of Edward I. Its ancient castle occupies a magnificent position close to the sea on an almost perpendicular rock, 150 ft. in height, accessible only on the south-east side. ”

“ A strong castle is again defended by a valiant bride. As Norwich, after the revolt and flight of Ralph of Wader, was defended by Emma of Breteuil, so Bamburgh, after the revolt and capture of Robert of Mowbray, was defended by Matilda of Laigle. ”

“ The strength of the castle, however, was not forgotten. No English castle, even when Bamburgh and Richmond are remembered, presents a more formidable defence than the curtain, pierced by a few spare openings and by the narrow western windows of Bek’s hall, which revets and crowns the cliff above the Wear; while, in the fourteenth century, Bishop Hatfield (1345-81) replaced the older keep by a new and probably more lofty polygonal shell. ”

“ Except a few dwellings of the 16th century in Newcastle, and some mansions built after the Union of England and Scotland, the older houses are all castles. A survey of 1460 mentions thirty-seven castles and seventy-eight towers in Northumberland, not probably including all the bastle-houses or small peels of the yeomen. At the Conquest Bamburgh, the seat of the Saxon kings, was the only fortress north of York. Norham Castle was built in 1121. None of the baronial castles are older than the time of Henry I. A grass mound represents Wark Castle. ”

“ A moulded plinth, as at Bamburgh, is of very rare occurrence. At Norwich and Castle Rising a wall is arcaded or recessed: this, however, is quite contrary to the usual practice. String-courses, where they were used, were generally confined to the buttresses, as at Kenilworth; although in a few cases, as at Richmond, they were continued along the wall. The necessary window openings were few and small. Here, however, a distinction must be made. It has been remarked already that the donjon of a castle sometimes formed the residence of its lord as well as a strong tower in time of war. ”

“ Many of these are dotted about the more exposed parts of the county; others are in the rear of the Roman wall.
The castle of Durham, taken alone, is rivalled both in position and grandeur by Bamburgh, but taken in conjunction with the cathedral and attendant buildings,
“Half church of God, half fortress ’gainst the Scot,” the group is without an equal. The main feature of the castle is the circular keep, a rebuilding of probably the oldest and most complete of that type in Britain. The lower ward also is spacious, and includes many buildings, some of them of early Norman date. ”

“ There remain to be considered the castles of the northern counties, Westmoreland and Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, for centuries exposed to invasions from beyond the Tweed, and fortified accordingly. In this tract were at least four castles of the first class,—Durham, Bamburgh, Norham, and the strongly-posted town and castle of Berwick; and of the second class Brough, Appleby and Brougham, Cockermouth, Carlisle, Prudhoe and Newcastle, Ford and Alnwick, and Warkworth. ”

“ Standing on an almost perpendicular mass of basaltic rock, overlooking the sea at a height of 150 feet, is Bamborough Castle. The stately keep belongs to the original stronghold, which was built on the site of what was probably one of a chain of fortresses raised by the Romans for the protection of the coast. For many centuries the castle was possessed of great strength, and was frequently used as a place of refuge by the Kings and Earls of Northumberland. It was founded by Ida, king of the Angles, about A.D. 547, and suffered considerably at the hands of the Danes in 933. ”

“ Bamborough Castle, grim, grey, and imposing, by its vastness and massive proportions, stands upon a rocky height of igneous formation on the coast of Northumberland. It is by nature a promontory fortress, and as such was seized by Ida and his Angles in 547, and who thence extended his sway over what subsequently became the kingdom of Bernicia. The castle is mentioned in 774, and was twice taken by the Danes. In 1095 the dramatic siege occurred with which Bamborough will be for ever associated. ”

“ We started southward from Berwick the following morning over the fine road leading through Northumberland. About ten miles off this road, and reached by narrow byways, is the pleasant little seacoast village of Bamborough, and the fame of its castle tempted us to visit it. I had often wondered why some of the old-time castles were not restored to their pristine magnificence—what we should have if Kenilworth or Raglan were re-built and to their ancient glory there were added all the modern conveniences for comfort. I found in Bamborough Castle a case exactly to the point. ”

“ High above the yellow sand that borders the fierce North Sea on the extreme north of the Northumbrian coast still stands the castle of Bamborough. Many a fierce invasion has it withstood during the thousand odd years since first King Ida placed his stronghold there. Many a cruel storm has it weathered, while lordly ships and little fishing cobles have been driven to destruction by the lashing waves on the rocks down below. ”

“ Widderington Castle, with the exception of one tower, was destroyed by fire. Warkworth Castle is about a mile from the mouth of the Alne, and is the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. Bamborough, the finest specimen of a feudal castle in the north of England, is said to have been founded by King Ida about the middle of the sixth century. Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, purchased the Bamborough estates between 1709 and 1720, and left them for charitable purposes. ”

“ At Bamburgh, as elsewhere, we are met by the never-failing difficulty which besets the student of the castles of that age. Can any of the work at Bamburgh which bears the impress of Norman art be safely assigned to the eleventh century? The keep. Or must we give up all to the twelfth, and believe that no part of the great centre of the building, the keep “huge and square,” was already in being when Robert of Mowbray defied the Red King from 50 his rock? On such a point it is dangerous to be over-positive. ”

“ It is more probable that a strong wooden castle was the fortress of the governors of Northumberland under the first Norman kings, and that the present stone keep was built in Henry II.’s reign. [262] There is no motte at Bamborough, nor was one needed on a site which is itself a natural motte, more precipitous and defensible than any artificial hill. [263] As the Domesday Survey does not extend to Northumberland, we have no statement of the value of Bamborough. The area of the castle is 43⁄4 acres. ”

“ On the western edge of the downs there are the scanty ruins of Charles’s Castle, which is probably the one described by Leland as “a lytle pyle or fortres.”
As we stand by the ruins and look down we can see below us, on a ledge of rocks jutting out into the sea, our old friend Cromwell’s Castle—a strong little tower, with walls twelve feet thick. The flooring and other woodwork of the interior has mostly disappeared, and what remains is green with damp; but the outer walls are just as strong as ever. The flat bomb-proof roof, once armed with a battery, is now overgrown with grass and brambles. ”

“ The crumbling masonry was assisted in its decay by no siege or bombardment; the castle has been never the scene of human struggle. Visitors, therefore, must take pleasure chiefly in the curiosities collected in the museum and in the views from the roof. A few little rooms hold the treasures amassed by the Archæological Society; amassed, it may be said, with little difficulty, for the soil of the district is fertile in relics. From Ringmer come rusty shield bosses and the mouldering skull of an Anglo-Saxon; from the old Lewes gaol come a lock and a key strong enough to hold Jack Sheppard ”

“ On the highest point of the ruin is an iron machine like a kibble, which serves as a beacon. A large tar-barrel is placed in it and set on fire. It burns like a flaming torch the night through. The Castle stands on a projecting rock, which rises to the height of a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet perpendicular from the sea. Around the Castle its summit is like a bowling-green. ”

“ They proved a weakness rather than a strength by preventing men from being moved rapidly to a critical point at the required time. The leading idea, at this period, was to render every point of the defences independent of the rest. Each tower is, therefore, a separate fort; the castle and barbican are independent of the city walls, and could hold out although the town was in the hands of the enemy; and within the castle there are two independent towers or donjons, which might still form a refuge for the garrison for some time after the castle was taken. ”

“ Sweeping round a rise in the ground, they came into sudden sight of the castle. Ancient and splendid it rose before them, its battlements shining in the sun—a heritage of which any man might be proud.
Babbacombe waited for some word of admiration from his companion. But he waited in vain. West was mute. ”

“ We have been a fatiguing walk through the heather to 'the Queen's Crag,' supposed to be Guinevere turned into stone."
"Bamborough Castle, Sept. 7.—I always long especially for my dearest mother in this grand old castle, to me perhaps the most delightful place in the world, its wild scenery more congenial than even beautiful Italy itself. Nothing too can be kinder than the dear old cousins. [348] ... It was almost dark when we drove up the links and under all the old gateways and through the rock entrance: the light burning in Mrs. Liddell's recess in the court-room. ”

“ The West side, wherein is the Entrance, is most of it broken down, and near the middle of the Square, another higher Wall erected out of the Ruins; which shews to have been a Castle, strong but rude; the old Stones and many Pillars broken or [Pg 90] sawn asunder, being rolled into the Fabrick, and ill cemented. Within were to be seen the Foundations of another Wall, which probably might answer this Front, and that the Mamalukes, whose Workmanship it seems most likely to have been, built the Castle here for the Security of the Place. ”

“ On an eminence near the village, and swelling above the river, is the picturesque ruin of its castle; a pile of no great extent, but well disposed, and profusely decorated with shrubs and ivy. The form of the structure is irregular: large circular towers cover the angles of the ramparts; within which are traces of the baronial hall, and other apartments, and beyond the mount are some remains of the barbican, or redoubt, and several entrenchments. All the door and window arches are pointed Gothic, and of the proportion in use about the thirteenth century ”

“ King Ida, who ascended the throne of Bernicia in 559, first built a castle there, which he is said to have named Bebban-burgh in honour of his queen Bebba. It has been conjectured by Wallis in his History of Northumberland, that the Keep or great tower, is of Roman origin; but Grose, with greater probability, considers it to have been built by the Normans. In 1095 Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, having rebelled against William Rufus, retired to Bambrough Castle, whither he was followed by Henry, the King's brother, and closely besieged. ”

“ It is a much less important building. The walls, set with rectangular towers, enclose three sides of an oblong court; the fourth side—that towards the river—must also have been walled, and it is probable that the castle approached more nearly to a square than at present appears, for the current has undermined the precipitous bank and the western part of the fortifications has fallen away. The masonry is of large blocks of stone, faced on the interior and on the exterior of the walls, while the core is mainly of rubble{68} and mortar. ”

“ The land, in general, seems well cultivated and enclosed—but in some places the enclosures seem too small, and the ridges too crooked, for proper farming. We pass two gentlemen's seats, called White Castle and Red Castle; the last a large good-looking mansion, with trees, and a pretty vale sloping upwards from the sea. As we approach the termination of the Lough, the ground becomes more rocky and barren, and the cultivation interrupted by impracticable patches, which have been necessarily abandoned. Come in view of Green Castle, a large ruinous castle, said to have belonged to the MacWilliams. ”

“ Lieutenant Baumgart started and listened with all his ears.
"They set his house on fire long ago," remarked another. "For five years he's been roosting among the blackened ruins like an owl."
"Why didn't he build his castle up again?" asked a third.
"Why? Because the peasants and farmers down in the village would have thrashed any one at the cart-wheel who dared to work for him. Once he tried getting labourers over from his foreign estates, thinking that as they couldn't understand German it would be all right; ... ”