Menu
 
Portfolio
 
Terms of Use
 

Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh Castle is a castle on the northeast coast of England, by the village of Bamburgh in Northumberland.

The site was originally the location of a Celtic Brittonic fort known as Din Guarie and may have been the capital of the kingdom of Bernicia from its foundation in c. 420 to 547. After passing between the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons three times, the fort came under Anglo-Saxon control in 590. The fort was destroyed by Vikings in 993, and the Normans later built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. After a revolt in 1095 supported by the castle’s owner, it became the property of the English monarch.

 

Built on a dolerite outcrop, the location was previously home to a fort of the indigenous Celtic Britons known as Din Guarie and may have been the capital of the kingdom of Bernicia, the realm of the Gododdin people, from the realm’s foundation in c. 420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year the citadel was captured by the Anglo-Saxon ruler Ida of Bernicia (Beornice) and became Ida’s seat.

 

The castle was briefly retaken by the Britons from his son Hussa during the war of 590 before being retaken later the same year. In c. 600, Hussa’s successor Æthelfrith passed it on to his wife Bebba, from whom the early name Bebbanburh was derived. Vikings destroyed the original fortification in 993.

 

The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. William II unsuccessfully besieged it in 1095 during a revolt supported by its owner, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria. After Robert was captured, his wife continued the defense until coerced to surrender by the king’s threat to blind her husband.

Bamburgh then became the property of the reigning English monarch. Henry II probably built the keep as it was complete by 1164.[10] Following the Siege of Acre in 1191, and as a reward for his service, King Richard I appointed Sir John Forster the first Governor of Bamburgh Castle. Following the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, King David II was held prisoner at Bamburgh Castle.

 

 

More posts..

Ashby de la Zouch Castle

Ashby de la Zouch Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The castle was built by William, Lord Hastings, a favorite of Edward IV, after 1473, accompanied by the creation of a 3,000-acre park. Constructed on the site of an

Read More
Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by

Read More
Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.   It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was

Read More
Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle sits beside Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. The castle is on the A82 road, 21 kilometers south-west of Inverness and 2 kilometers east of the village of Drumnadrochit.   The name Urquhart derives from the 7th-century form Airdchartdan, itself a mix

Read More
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
error: