A Wander Around Newcastle Keep

Newcastle Keep

At the bottom of the Bigg Market (infamous local drinking area), looming 90 feet tall of worn stone,  lies the structure that gave Newcastle it's name. Actually, that's not true; It's the structure after the structure that gave Newcastle it's name but we'll come to that in a moment. The castle we see today is instantly recognisable to the cognoscenti as a quintessential Norman or Angevin keep, typical of the late eleventh or twelfth century. Here's a tip: If anyone ever shows you a picture of a keep like the one above and asks you which king was on the throne when it was built, say Henry II. You won't always be correct but it's surprising how often you will be. Anyway, on with the story.

Western View

Early Days
In the years immediately following the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest the north of England was a wild and unruly place, a disputed zone with the newcomers vying for control with displaced Anglo-Saxons and expansionist Scots. The situation boiled over in 1080 when William Walcher, Norman Earl of Northumbria and bishop of Durham was killed in a skirmish with a local mob. Retaliation was swift and brutal, carried out in the customary Norman fashion of fire and sword. As part of this subjugation program, Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, led a military expedition north to prevent Scottish intervention. On his return he built a fortress at the point where the Great North Road crosses the River Tyne. He chose an excellent site, protected by steep slopes to the east and south (The Romans thought so too, having built a settlement in the same place). This 'New Castle', built of earth and timber, would have been thrown up in a matter of weeks, no doubt with the help (willing or otherwise) of the local populace.

Commanding view from the battlements

Nothing now remains of this fortification so we can't say for sure what it looked like but typically such castles consisted of a timber palisade surrounded by a ditch. Housed within this protective perimeter would be the domestic and military buildings (watchtowers, kitchens, stables, living quarters etc) required for the castle to function. The net result is to allow a relatively small number of men to exercise control over a large area without having to worry too much about being murdered in their sleep. Such castles were a widespread feature of the occupation and it's very unlikely the conquest would have succeeded without them, given the interlopers were outnumbered by perhaps up to 100-1. The Norman knight in helmet and mail, sat astride his charger may have felt invincible in the day but the night belonged to the locals. And they were anything but happy.

Formidable as the earth and timber castle was it was not indestructible, being vulnerable to both fire and axe. Indeed the castle was captured in 1095/6 during a rebellion against William II by Robert Mowbray, 1st Earl of Northumberland, and had to be re-taken by siege. It was occupied again by David, king of Scotland, during the civil war (sometimes called 'the anarchy') between King Stephen and his cousin Matilda only to be surrendered after the two monarchs reached an agreement.

Set In Stone

The Black Gate with the keep in the background

The limitations of wooden defences were well known by the time the civil war was brought to a close by the accession of Henry II, and it was this most energetic of kings who (as hinted above) rebuilt the keep in stone between 1168 and 1178. It's believed the master mason and architect responsible for the project was Maurice 'the Engineer', who would later build the keep at Dover Castle. In the years that followed the keep was surrounded by a stone curtain wall and, finally, a barbican (later known as the Black Gate) was added to the Gatehouse in around 1250.

Fake!

The construction dates of the keep are interesting because in the years 1173 and 1174 the region was invaded by Scottish forces under their king, William the Lion, and it's tempting to speculate on how much disruption this may have caused to the building work. In particular I'm thinking here of the castle battlements, which are not what they seem to the casual observer. If the turrets appear to be in surprisingly good condition for 800 year old structures, that's because they're not 800 years old. They were added when the castle was given a makeover in the early 19th century and it's not known exactly what the original layout was. Drawings and paintings from before the makeover show a flat parapet, sometimes crenellated, but the raised corner turrets, a standard feature on keeps of the period are not present. Whether they ever existed in the first place is a mystery, though if they didn't, one possible cause could be that the completion was hurried after William The Lion's incursion and they simply never got round to finishing them. William, incidentally, got to inspect the castle personally, being brought as a prisoner after his capture at a battle outside Alnwick in 1174.

Polygonal Tower

Another oddity is the fact that three of the four corner towers are square yet the fourth is polygonal, for no obvious reason. The only similar setup I can think of is at Rochester Castle, which features three square and one round tower, but here the disparity is easily accounted for; the round tower at Rochester is a rebuild after the original was destroyed by undermining in a siege, a round design being adopted because they were better able to resist projectile strike than the earlier square type. Perhaps this evidence of technological enhancement is a clue to the mystery tower at Newcastle. An experiment in new building design and techniques? It's an intriguing thought.

How many doors?

If that isn't enough to get you thinking, a quick skirt around the rest of the exterior walls will surely have you scratching your head. Like most castles, windows and openings are relatively sparse, a few windows on the upper floors and narrow arrows slits lower down. No mystery here, this is obviously to prevent would-be aggressors from smashing there way in. So why are there large windows at ground level on the eastern side of the keep? Something that would take a couple of burly lads with axes about 30 seconds to break through doesn't fit in with the rest of the keep so what are they doing there? The obvious answer is that they weren't that big when the keep was built but were widened centuries later when security was less important. This is very possible but doesn't account for the door at (shock, horror!) ground level, just under the main entrance. This door has clearly been modified (check the bricked up arch) but it looks like there's been some sort of entrance there all along, which would severely compromise the defences. Come to think of it, why would you even want a second door right next to the main one?

Postern Door

It's quite common to have an alternative means of entrance/exit in a keep in case you need to make a quick getaway or mount a surprise sortie on your foe, but you wouldn't want it on the ground floor and you wouldn't want it next to the main door. Such doors were known as posterns or sally ports, and there's a prime candidate for one on the West wall, notably off the ground and accessible only by a ladder to make for easier defence. It's the sort of door you can imagine sneaking out of in the dead of night. So where does that leave our mystery door? To solve that riddle you have to see what's on the other side...

Main Entrance 

 The main entrance, as shown above, is up a steep set of stairs and through imposing wooden doors, framed by a battered looking round arch. Once inside, there's a door to access the keep on the left but this is a modern creation. Originally, you would have to ascend another set of stairs to reach the entrance proper. And quite an entrance it is, a set of double doors surrounded by ornate carvings and pillars that look too good to be true (you know what's coming next). Sadly, they are too good to be true, dating only from a reconstruction carried out by the famous Newcastle architect John Dobson in 1848. Fake it may be, but at least he was faithful, the round arch and chevron pattern being typical of the period.

The Garrison Room

Whichever entrance you use, once inside it's a veritable rabbit warren of chambers, staircases and passageways. The principal rooms have grand names such as King's Chamber, Queen's Chamber, Great Hall and Garrison Room but it's important to remember these are modern inventions. In particular, the ground floor 'Garrison Room' suggests it was used to house troops but there's no evidence this was the case. The most interesting feature of this room for me is the vaulted ceiling with ribs supported by a central column, the whole arrangement looking like a stone palm tree. Remarkably, the column also has a secondary, less obvious role, in that it contained a lead pipe through which water could be supplied from a well on the third level. A reliable source of clean water would be key to survival in the event of a siege and could make the difference between surrender and holding out.

The Chapel

On the same level as the Garrison Room is a chapel, and it's here we find the answers to the problems of the ground level door and large windows noted earlier. These days you can walk from the chapel to the rest of the keep without leaving the building, but that wasn't the case when first built. Thus the ground level door was required to access the chapel and if an enemy was to break through either here or through the large windows, so what? There was still a wall between them and the remainder of the keep. It's even possible that the chapel was deliberately provided with large windows and external doors in order to provide a soft target for a besieger to attack. Too late would they discover that their exertions availed them naught. The interior of the chapel has, like the entrance, been the subject of restoration work though they've made a pretty decent job, the arches and rib vaults make a nice comparison with the contemporary Durham Cathedral.


The next floor up features exhibition rooms and above this is possibly the most important room in the whole castle, appropriately called the Great Hall. It's the largest open space in the building and it's tempting to imagine what great meetings and ceremonies took place here. John Balliol, ill-fated King of Scots, supposedly swore fealty to Edward I in this hall on Boxing Day 1292. Within four years the agreement was in tatters, largely due to the English King's excessive demands, and Scotland formed the 'Auld Alliance' with France against England. In the long years of war that followed Newcastle became a vital strategic town, used as a mustering point for English armies campaigning in Scotland and playing host to the great and the good. Edwards II and III both stopped here on their way North and, less willingly, David II of Scotland came as a prisoner after the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346.

The Black Gate

The castle itself saw little action, far less than its wooden predecessor. This can be partly ascribed to the deterrent effect, stone walls twenty feet thick being sufficient to quench the fire in the boldest of hearts.  The army of William Wallace approached Newcastle during his invasion of 1297 but were repelled, possibly after a brief skirmish, and looked for easier targets elsewhere, such as Hexham Abbey. In addition, from about 1280 the town of Newcastle began to be enclosed in a new stone wall so after little more than a century the castle was effectively redundant. It was used as a prison and, reflecting its lack of importance, gradually allowed to fall into ruin. It would stare an enemy soldier in the face on precisely one more occasion...

The Civil War
During the civil wars of the seventeenth century Newcastle was a royalist town and the walls were surrounded by a Scottish army allied to the parliamentary side in 1644. The siege dragged on for months but eventually, the medieval walls proved no match for cannon fire and under-mining and the Scots broke through. Up until this point the castle had made use of its great height and strong foundations as an artillery platform - 'the enemy from the castle doth mightily annoy us with their great guns' - and now it was to perform one last service by being used as a final redoubt by the defenders. I would love to report that they held out long enough for help to arrive, like John Wayne in frills and a natty hat, but it wasn't to be. After four days the inhabitants were forced to surrender and, ignominiously, were almost lynched by a mob of townspeople who blamed them for the hardships the town had suffered.

Modern Times

A train scrapes past the keep

Having outlived and seen off disgruntled Saxons, invading Scots and humourless roundheads, it's ironic to think that the castle almost met its end at the hands of modernity, progress and the iron horse. Unbelievable as it sounds today, the fortress was almost demolished in the mid-nineteenth century to make way for a viaduct for the new fangled railway. Fortunately for us, reason prevailed and the track passed between the keep and the Black Gate. Phew!


In more recent times the castle has served as a museum and tourist attraction. For many years the Black gate was inaccessible to the general public but has itself been recently refurbished and opened up for viewing. I'm particularly proud of the fact that I play a very small part in the modern castle story as an event volunteer and steward. It's an honour to be associated with such a splendid building and always a pleasure to take part. Every time I visit I see something new.
The Castle is open every day between 10am and 5pm. For further details, see their excellent website

Icons old and new. The Keep and The Black Gate with the Tyne bridge and The Sage concert hall

The Late Shows 2 - The Geek in The Keep

Newcastle at night. As seen from the roof of the Castle

 If it's May it must be time for The Late Shows, the annual 'culture crawl' around Newcastle, when the city's galleries, museums and historical attractions throw open their doors late at night. The Late Shows has been around since 2007 in Newcastle but this was only my third year of being involved as a volunteer.  For the previous two I was based in St Nicholas' Cathedral but this year I got my dream gig of being in the Castle Keep, just down the road. For a castle-lover like me, there couldn't be a better place to spend a Saturday night.

Busy

The role of the volunteer is simple - welcome visitors, answer any queries and hand out the Late Shows speciality (and very popular) glowsticks. I arrived at the castle as requested at 18.30, ahead of the scheduled opening at 19.00, and got a taste of how intimidating the building is as I climbed the first set of stairs to knock on the large locked door.
Once inside I had a quick scurry around to see what lay in store for our visitors. In addition to the building itself, as a special Late Shows treat there was a band playing in the Great Hall and an art installation on the roof. Speaking of the roof, I knew the opportunity to see Newcastle at night (see the above picture) from one the highest points accessible would be a big draw in itself. Once I'd satisfied my own curiosity I took up station at the entrance and awaited the grand opening.

Still busy

The next four hours are pretty much a blur. For a large building, the interior can be quite cramped (mainly due to the thick walls) and there was a joyous, if slightly claustrophobic, atmosphere as hordes of people descended on us. At times it felt like we were under siege so great was the tide, and we were forced to regulate the people coming in due to overcrowding. Come chucking-out time at 23.00 I was still turning people away.




 


When I left the Keep there was still one suprise in store, the entire side of the building was lit up by a projection especially for The Late Shows. A spectacular end to a breathless night.

A projection on the castle walls

A Wander Around Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle is one of my favourite places to visit and if you've ever been you'll understand why. It's the embodiment of the romantic ruin, a time capsule from the 14th century unspoilt by modern development, left in splendid isolation for time and weather to take their toll while it maintains a lonely vigil by the sea.

The area is prone to flooding in wet weather

In fact, 'isolation' is a key word when it comes to Dunstanburgh, as historians have long puzzled over it's location. Castles are usually built to exercise power and influence over an important location- a town or market, a strategic road, river crossing or port- yet Dunstanburgh appears to have none of these. To try to answer this question we need to look at the man who built it, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, cousin and political opponent to King Edward II. Thomas and the King did not always see eye to eye (to put it mildly) and disagreements between powerful men always had the potential to turn nasty in those days so, to my mind anyway, Dunstanburgh Castle is Thomas's get-out-of-jail card (or keep-out-of-jail card more like), a refuge or bolt-hole built as far away from the King's reach as possible while still being on his own land. In this scenario, the castle's isolation would have worked in it's favour, allowing the Earl to remain out of sight and out of mind until things calmed down. Whatever his reasoning, it didn't do Thomas much good; when the moment of crisis came (the guidebook tells us of a conference between him and his followers- 'by common consent, they should all go to the castle of Dunstanburgh, which pertained to the earldom of Lancaster, and abide there till the king had forgiven him'), he was unable to reach his new fortress and was captured and beheaded.

The mighty gatehouse

The sense of remoteness is one of the first things that strikes you when you first catch sight of it outlined on the horizon. It's possible to approach the castle from two different directions, via the neighbouring villages of Craster (from the south) or Embleton (north), but either way you'll need your walking shoes as there's no road within a mile of the castle. I favour the approach from Craster as it has the spectacular view seen above, but if you're visiting with children you may find Embleton better as the walk has a sandy beach as a distraction (for the non-castle geek) rather than the grassy-rocky shore that the Craster path features.

Weather-worn stonework

Entrance to the Castle is afforded by it's outstanding feature, the giant gatehouse cum keep, twin-towered with an arched passageway in between. The two drum-towers are three storeys high, topped with turrets that extended another two storeys, though little now remains. In the photo above, you can just see the remains of one turret at the very top of the left hand tower. Though scarred and battle-weary, it remains a magnificent, awe-inspiring sight. Get close to the structure and you'll see strange patterns in the individual stones caused by erosion from centuries of wind and rain, the result being a visual and tactile experience to rival any modern artist's work. Despite the ruinsome condition of the gatehouse it's possible to climb right to the top of the right-hand tower, and it's well worth the exertion as the views are quite spectacular, an 'on-top-of-the-world' feeling to contrast with the gloomy, claustrophobic nature of the interior.

View from the Gatehouse

The top of the gatehouse is a good place to survey the rest of the site. It's often described as the largest castle in Northumberland but it soon becomes clear that this is a bit of a cheat. It's the largest in terms of the area enclosed by the walls but this has much to do with the castle's siting on a promontory, the interior actually being fairly sparse and deliberately kept overgrown and grassy to serve as a habitat for wildlife.



The south-facing curtain wall adjoining the gatehouse is by far the thickest and best quailty of any point in the castle perimeter and this is no coincidence, as it's the most likely direction of attack. To the north and east the castle is protected by cliffs and the sea, while the west is protected by a steep slope.

Curtain Wall and Towers

Following the wall down to the sea leads to the Constable's Tower where the castle commander would have resided. In the absence of Thomas of Lancaster or his successor-owners, this was the most important figure here, charged with looking after the castle and it's surrounding environs.

The Egyncleugh Tower

Further still, the curtain wall terminates in the Egyncleugh ('eagle's ravine') Tower, precariously perched right on the cliff edge, preventing any enemy from outflanking the strong defences. The ravine below the tower is known as Queen Margaret's Cove, after Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI and Lancastrian figurehead in The Wars of The Roses, supposedly landed here in in 1462. In reality, she landed further up the coast at Bamburgh but such legends have a tendency to stick. The Egyncleugh Tower once contained it's own gateway and drawbridge, allowing the occupants to come and go without requiring access to the gatehouse. Presumably this was to speed up the day-to-day activities (tradesman's entrance?) and keep the locals away from the Lord's lodgings if he happened to be in residence.

From this point, away from the likely direction of attack, the quality of the curtain wall deteriorates sharply, both in height and thickness.  The guidebook informs us that the wall was heightened at some point, presumably because the builders feared a naval landing (Wars of The Roses again?). This conjures up fanciful images of a medieval equivalent of the opening scenes from Saving Private Ryan but perhaps I'm getting a bit carried away here.

The Northern Perimeter and Gull Crag

At the far end of this (east) wall is another gateway, allowing access to the rocky headland beyond. The guidebook speculates that this may have been to allow the castle to be evacuated or re-supplied by sea in the event of a siege, though how practical this would have been in rough sea I'm not so sure.

As you reach the northern edge of the promontory the wall disappears completely, with no foundations visible and it's unclear if there was ever a wall or palisade here at all. If there was it clearly wasn't a significant work and it's not too suprising as the entire northern perimeter is protected by a 30 meter cliff known as Gull Crag and, below that, the sea.

The wall reappears at the western edge of the cliff, though much of the stone has been pilfered for reuse elsewhere. This side of the castle is dominated by The Lilburn Tower, named for one John de Lilburn, constable of Dunstanburgh in 1322. The view from here across Embleton bay is fantastic, and on a clear day Bamburgh Castle, some 10 miles north, can also be seen.

The Lilburn Tower

The fact that The Lilburn Tower is sited in this prime viewing location may be an indication as to it's primary function, as a watchtower over the northern approaches to the castle. It's also possible that it's there to perform exactly the opposite role, that is, not to see but to be seen. For just as Bamburgh Castle, a royal stronghold representing the power and authority of the King, can be seen from here, so the occupants of that fortress would be able to look across to the Lilburn Tower and be reminded that power and authority are not unchallengeable.


After you leave the tower, the next notable section of this stretch of wall is known as 'John of Gaunt's Gatehouse' and to explain this we need to take another trip into the castle's history.

After Thomas of Lancaster's execution in 1322, Dunstanburgh came into the hands of the king, who decided it could be a useful bulwark against potential Scottish aggression and therefore worth looking after. Had he known about the castle's remote location, away from any major road and therefore unlikely to be much of an obstacle to an invasion from north of the border, he may have reached a different judgement. That said, given Edward II's history with the Scots (he was present at Bannockburn in 1314, perhaps the worst military defeat in medieval English history), he may have felt he needed all the help he could get.

Bamburgh Castle on the horizon, seen from the Lilburn Tower

Dunstanburgh later came into the hands of Earl Thomas's younger brother Henry and eventually, in 1362, passed to one of the most famous Lancastrians, John of Gaunt, Duke (rather than Earl) of Lancaster and son of Edward III. Though not as famous as his elder brother, Edward the Black Prince, Gaunt wielded enormous wealth and power. The son of a king and the uncle of a king, he posthumously became the father of a king when his son Henry Bolingbroke usurped the throne as Henry IV, founding the dynasty of Lancastrian kings that would end in The Wars of The Roses, during which Dunstanburgh Castle would see it's only large-scale fighting.

The rear of the Gatehouse/Keep

John of Gaunt came to Northumberland in 1380 as part of his new post as lieutenant in the Scottish marches. This meant he was responsible for border security, of which castles played a huge part. He must have been unimpressed by Dunstanburgh as he ordered changes to be made, the main one of which saw Thomas of Lancaster's great gatehouse converted to a keep by walling up the entrance. He also had new inner walls built, effectively sealing off the new keep from the rest of the castle, and built a new entrypoint, protected by a barbican. It is the remains of this last mentioned work which we encountered above, bearing the name of John of Gaunt.

Inside the Gatehouse

Speaking of Dunstanburgh's inadequacies, the guidebook tells an interesting tale of how, during the peasant's revolt of 1381 Gaunt, a major figure in the government of the country and hence likely to meet with anger and violence from the rebels, preferred to leave his own castle as he feared it was not strong enough and sought refuge in Alnwick Castle instead. Personally, I find this hard to take at face value, since Dunstanburgh's remoteness would surely have played to it's advantage on this occasion. Did Gaunt really fear that large numbers of rebels, poorly armed, untrained and disorganised, would have travelled several miles without artillery or siege equipment and then successfully assault this castle? Perhaps my affection for Dunstanburgh is showing here, or maybe John of Gaunt was a particularly paranoid individual, but I think it more likely that Gaunt would have gone to Alnwick in order to place himself in a more influential location from which to control events, rather than hunkering down by the sea.

The Lilburn Tower in April 2011

Continuing the tour, as you pass by the 'new' gatehouse you once again encounter the hulking structure of the 'old' gatehouse and realise you have come full circle, literally and figuratively. But the wander doesn't stop there, as I always make a point of walking past the castle in the direction of Embleton. Just as Craster affords the best view of the gatehouse, Embleton offers the ground level views of the Lilburn tower, which have become a favourite of photographers and painters. The view varies depending on the weather as the ground below the tower floods easily. Indeed, the most recent archaeological surveys suggest these 'meres' were intended to be part of the castle's original defences and were far more extensive than originally thought, stretching right round and almost connecting with the sea on both sides. This would have created the illusion that the castle was in fact an island, which some commentators have suggested was part of Thomas of Lancaster's original vision of the castle, seeing it as a second Avalon with (of course) himself as King Arthur. There's certainly an ethereal quality, an other-worldliness, about seeing The Lilburn Tower reflected in the surface of the mere below so it's not hard to see why this theory hasn't been dismissed.

Avalon?

Whatever the truth about the once and future king, neither he nor Earl Thomas were able to help Dunstanburgh when war finally came to the castle, in 1461 during the Wars of The Roses as mentioned earlier. Following the Yorkist victory at the great battle of Towton, Dunstanburgh, along with it's fellow Northumbrian strongholds at Alnwick and Bamburgh, became one of the few places still held for the defeated Lancastrians. King Henry VI and Queen Margaret had fled to Scotland and there remained the possibility that, once regrouped, they could launch an invasion from north of the border, using the northumbrian castles as a rallying point and launchpad. To prevent this, the Yorkist leaders resolved to take the fortresses while launching a charm offensive on the Scots in order to diplomatically isolate the Lancastrians.

Viewed from Embleton

What followed was almost a microcosm of The Wars of The Roses as Dunstanburgh was taken, lost, taken again, and lost again before finally being captured for good in 1464. These sieges were conducted more through blockade and starvation than through direct assault and Dunstanburgh at least avoided the ignominy of becoming the first castle in England to succumb to cannon fire (that particular distinction fell to Bamburgh not long after). The main figure in the sieges was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, better known as 'Warwick The Kingmaker' and there's a small  irony in the fact that Dunstanburgh, which owed it's creation and rise to great Lancastrians, should fall to a great Yorkist. That's if you can call Warwick a Yorkist, but that's an argument for another day.

Dunstanburgh never really recovered from it's mauling during The Wars of The Roses. It's walls were not mended and it's buildings fell into neglect and disrepair until restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries left us with the glorious ruin we see today. I for one would not have it any other way.

Viewed from Craster harbour

Visiting the Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle lies on the Northumberland coast, roughly 40 miles north of Newcastle. Parking (not free) is available in Craster, just over a mile from the castle. Bamburgh, Alnwick and Warkworth Castles are all within a 12 mile radius of Dunstanburgh. The Castle is open at weekends only from November to March, and all week from April to October. Admission is free to members of both English Heritage and the National Trust.

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.