A Wander Around Prudhoe Castle

Prudhoe Castle viewed from the approach road

I tend to take Prudhoe Castle for granted as it's so close to where I live (10 minutes drive or an hours walk) but I shouldn't because it's a real gem. The gatehouse and unusual barbican are particularly impressive.

Viewed from Ovingham

The initial approach, coming from the direction of Prudhoe town, is a little suprising. Castles are usually placed on high ground so they can dominate the local area (psychologically as well as physically) but in this case you have to travel downhill to reach it. It's only once you've had a good walk around it that you realise the strategic sense. Prudhoe Castle is all about controlling the River Tyne and the position, on a plateau midway down the bank gives it the best of both worlds - steep banks on 3 sides give it excellent defence while being close enough to the river to leave no doubt as to who's in charge.

You get a good impression if you continue down the hill and cross the bridge to the Ovingham side. Back in the day, all those trees you can see wouldn't be there (not to mention the industrial estate) and the (non-ruined) castle would have stood out all the more, looming on the horizon.

The Barbican and Gatehouse

You approach the castle, as any potential attacker would have done, through the barbican. This is a fortified building outside the gatehouse, a sort of gatehouse-gatehouse if you will, intended to make an assault on the castle that much more difficult. The modern paving stones make the route through the barbican to the gatehouse look deceptively easy, in reality the two buildings were physically separated and linked only by a drawbridge in the gatehouse.

The gatehouse itself is much older than the barbican and is probably the oldest surviving part of the castle. It was built in about 1150, though it was heightened two centuries later during improvement work. The wooden gates have been dated to about 1460, according to the guidebook.

Rear view of the Gatehouse

The room above the gatehouse contains a small chapel and has an unusual projecting window on the east side with two 13th century lancet windows (a lancet window is one of the features of medieval gothic architecture, a narrow window with a pointed arch, so named because of it's resemblance to a lance).

The gatehouse opens into a large outer bailey or courtyard, which once contained a great hall and domestic buildings (kitchens, pantries etc). The keep would have been cramped and uncomfortable so most of the day to day business of the castle would have been carried out here. Nowadays, the bailey is used as a picnic area.

Castle Model On Display

At the centre of the castle there is a modern(-ish) house, built in the early nineteenth century. This is used as the administration and information centre by the castle owners (English Heritage) and also contains an exhibition detailing the castle's history and showcases various artefacts found during archaeological digs. The highlight for me was a model of the castle in its prime, on show in the upstairs room.

Castle Keep

Leaving the house through the rear exit leads to the keep, the military heart of the castle.  Most of it is in ruins, but one of the corner turrets still survives, topped with a flag fluttering defiantly to give an idea of how impressive it must have been in it's prime. Such skeletal remains are of course a disappointment, but also instructive, as it affords a useful cross-sectional view. You can see the original entrance situated, like many Norman keeps, not on the ground floor but on the first floor, accessed by an external wooden staircase. In an emergency, the staircase would be burnt or smashed, making it extremely difficult for an attacker to break in. There is also an entrance below it but this only gives access to the ground floor itself, used generally for storage, with no access to the floors above it. On the west wall a scar is visible from where the gable end of the pitched roof was, and you can also see the internal staircase leading up to the corner turret.

Staircase inside the walls

On leaving the keep, you can then explore the inner bailey. There's a staircase leading up to the curtain walls but, sadly, climbing them is forbidden as the walls are in such a dilapidated state. In fact, the walls have been the subject of much repair over the centuries, due to subsidence caused by unstable foundations.

Arrow Loop

The South curtain wall contains a fine example of a medieval arrow loop, cross-shaped to allow the use of either crossbow or longbow, and situated to defend the pele yard outside. This was the most vulnerable portion of the castle as it's the only side not protected by a steep drop, a fact that becomes clear when you leave the castle and explore the outer perimeter.

Viewed from the Pele Yard

The pele yard is the area directly south of the castle and would have housed buildings used in the daily activities such as stables and barns. It also contained a stone chapel until Henry VIII outlawed them, and it fell into disuse (don't get me started on Henry VIII). This is also the best place to appreciate the castle as a whole, as there are no trees or steep slopes to interfere with the view. The curtain wall once contained two drum towers but only one now remains, the other being reduced to it's base when security became less of a concern. Visible in the wall are numerous arrow loops and small holes, the latter probably to support wooden hoardings. These were screens which projected out of the wall to give the defenders improved fields of fire.

Slope below the East Tower

There's a trail which leads right round the castle, from which you can appreciate how difficult it would be to assault up the steep slopes. There's also a ruined mill just outside the barbican, 18th-century in this case, although there had been older mills here for centuries previously. They could be quite a money spinner for the local Lord as the locals often had no choice but to use it.

A Brief History 

Prudhoe Castle started life as an earth and timber fortress built around 1100 to control a crossing of the River Tyne (I believe this was a ford rather than a bridge but I could be wrong). By about 1200 it had been converted to stone and was progressively improved over the following centuries with towers, a barbican and improved accomodation, reaching it's peak by about 1500, before falling into neglect and decay.

Castle Gatehouse

Prudhoe Castle was besieged twice, in 1173 and 1174, both times by the Scottish King William the Lion. The present display inside the castle provides details of the sieges, including an eyewitness account written by Jordan Fantosme, who has William saying to his barons: 'My lords, what shall we do? As long as Prudhoe stands we shall never have peace'. It's difficult to find details of exactly what state of development the castle was at this point, but by my reckoning, it would be after the stone gatehouse and curtain wall were constructed, but before the stone keep was built.

Both sieges were unsuccessful and, following the second attempt, William was captured in a battle near Alnwick and forced to pay homage to the English King Henry II.

Inside the chapel

I was hoping to find some information on Prudhoe Castle's involvement in the later wars with Scotland as the Tyne Valley area was a frequent target for raids led by the likes of William Wallace and Robert Bruce. So far I've been unsuccessful and perhaps that's not suprising, as the Scots tended to travel light and move quickly, avoiding heavily fortified places such as castles. I suspect they would have given Prudhoe a wide berth and searched for easier pickings elsewhere.

The guidebook describes the castle as being 'captured' by the Yorkist Edward IV during the Wars of the Roses in 1464 but gives no mention of a siege so I interpret it to mean it was a negotiated takeover. Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Alnwick castles were all taken by force in the same period so I suspect if Prudhoe had been under a similar siege we'd have heard more about it.

Visiting the Castle

The Outer Bailey

Prudhoe lies roughly 10 miles West of Newcastle, just South of the River Tyne. There's a good bus service from both Newcastle and Hexham and a train station 1/2 mile away (steep uphill walk though). The Castle is only open between Thursdays and Mondays, and closed altogether in the Winter months (November - March) so check before you visit.

Outside the castle, a walk uphill will take you to Prudhoe town, which offers the usual shops and cafes as well as great views looking North over the Tyne Valley. Walking down the hill will lead to a park with a picnic/walking area by the river. All in all a very nice day out.