Bamburgh castle conforms with our romantic notion of what a medieval castle should be, but this is largely because it was heavily restored in the late 19th century.

Dramatically sited upon a rugged outcrop of basalt, the castle had been the capital of the Bryneich kingdom, which was founded in c.420 AD, and was known to the native Britons as Din Guardi.  The first written referecence to its existence occurred in 547 AD.  In this year, the castle was captured by Ida of Bernicia, a fearsome Anglo-Saxon ruler, and became his seat.  Ida’s rule passed to his son Hussa, but the citadel was retaken by the Britons in the war of 590 AD, before being retrieved later the same year.

Hussa’s grandson Æðelfriþ passed the castle to his wife Bebba, whereupon it came to be known as Bebanburgh, from which the modern name Bamburgh is derived. The original fortification was destroyed during the Viking raids of 993 AD.

After the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 Bamburgh was rebuilt by the Normans, and this castle forms the core of the present building.  William II mounted an unsuccessful siege on the castle in 1095 in order to crush a rebellion led by its owner, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria.  The Earl was captured, but his wife continued to defend the citadel until she was forced to surrender.  The king had threatened to blind her husband.

Bamburgh became the property of the English monarchy, and the present keep was probably built by Henry II. As a key fortification in the Border region, the castle was targetted by Scottish raiders. During the Wars of the Roses it became the first Englidh castle to be defeated by artillery, after an arduous nine-month siege by Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick.

For the next 400 years Bamburgh was governed by the Forster family of Northumberland, who were loyal to the Crown.  Eventually Sir William Forster (d. 1700) was posthumously declared bankrupt, and the castle was sold to Nathaniel Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham (the husband of Forster’s sister Dorothy) under an Act of Parliament.

The castle gradually deteriorated but it was purchased by the Victorian arms manufacturer and industrialist  Lord William George Armstrong, who had made a fortune producing guns which he sold around the world.  Both sides in the American Civil War used guns manufactured in Armstrong’s Elswick Works in Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Armstrong restored the castle, transforming it into an extensive country seat.  However, he died before the restoration was compete.

William George Armstrong

Bamburgh remains an active site for archaeological study.  Excavations were undertaken in the 1960s by Dr Hope-Taylor. During these investigations a gold plaque known as the Bamburgh Beast was discovered, along with an artefact known as the Bamburgh Sword.  More recently, the Bamburgh Research Project has been investigating the archaeology and history of Bamburgh. This investigation has concentrated on the castle itself and the Bowl Hole, a medieval burial ground to the south.  The project runs a training excavation every summer, enabling students to learn archaeological techniques.