Bamburgh Castle and its environs together form one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain. The Castle contains within its bounds layers representing more than 2000 years of continuous occupation, while the landscape around the castle rock is textured by over 6000 years of human history.

Post Medieval Bamburgh

The Castle was badly damaged by gunfire during a siege by the Yorkists during the War of the Roses in 1464 and left in a ruinous state. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, having lost its military usefulness, the Castle was granted into the hands of the Forster family.

The Forsters were bankrupt by the beginning of the 18th century and the estate passed into the ownership of Nathaniel Lord Crewe, Archbishop of York, on whose death it formed part of a charitable trust, administered in the later 18th century by Dr John Sharp. It was Dr Sharp who began the restoration process creating a school for girls and hostel for shipwrecked mariners.

At the end of the 19th century, William 1st Lord Armstrong purchased the castle and rebuilt the living quarters of the castle on a lavish scale. The castle is still occupied in the present day.

Today, as it has always done, the castle rock and the structures on it have an impressive brooding presence over the surrounding landscape, perhaps the most recognisable structure in the Northumbrian landscape