Exploring Scotland 1 Castle at a Time part 2 Bamburgh

Back to Bamburgh. 

Despite the lethality of the cannon you see the castle fell in 1464 beneath heavy artillery fire during the War of the Roses, a battle between King Henry VI and his rival for the crown, King Edward the IV. The Canon with several others points east out to sea as though to protect the castle from attack.

                                   

This area is the entrance of the castle itself. We were not allowed to photograph the interior of the castle because it is a home owned by the Armstrong family and thus it would be an infringment of their privacy but the rooms I remember most were the King's Hall with it's wide medieval arches leading into the Cross Hall. The Cross Hall had a beautiful tudor fireplace with a copy of The Card Players by Theodor Rombouts hung above it. I happen to love that painting. Two huge globes at least 24 inches in diameter were positioned on either side of the room, one had the continents and the other had the constellations positioned on it.

The light delicacy of The Faire Room with it's glass doored cabinets of china and the Louis XV and XVI chairs stand out in my mind as well. The early afternoon sunlight reflected off the glassware and the floor giving the room a pleasant warmth.

This is another picture of the front facade from a different angle.

This doorway and the wall around it is the greatest part of what remains of the Chapel. The exterior walls are gone but for a few brave stones clinging together to designate the size and shape of the room.  Looking through the door, the nearly four foot thick walls are appareant.  And across the courtyard stands the keep visible from this standpoint with its odd bottle shaped doorway. It was designed so that retreating knights could fall back inside on horseback without dismounting should the curtain walls be breached during an attack.

The striations you see in the stones of the Chapel are caused by hundreds of years of wind, sand, and other elements battering them.
 
 
 

 
This glass sculpture titled Silver is mounted on an interior wall just before the entrance to the stables. It was created by artist Rena Holford. It is made of glass and silver and was cut using a water jet drill.
 
 

 
 
                                                             These are the stables. 

Within the front gates of the castle stands a memorial stone honoring Lord William George Armstrong who purchased Bamburgh Castle in the 1890's and took it upon himself to restore the structure to its former glory.
It is his family who own the castle today.
 
Tomorrow we move on to Alnwick Castle!!! The castle at which some of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.