Bamburgh Castle, Grade I listed castle in Bamburgh, England
Bamburgh Castle is a medieval fortress in Bamburgh, England, sitting on a basalt crag above the shore. Thick stone walls from Norman times encircle several courtyards and towers that spread across the full length of the rock.
A Celtic fort named Din Guarie occupied this rock from the year 420 until Vikings destroyed it in 993. Normans then raised the stone fortress that stands today, which later generations rebuilt during medieval sieges and Victorian restoration.
The castle's former laundry now houses the Armstrong and Aviation Artefacts Museum, displaying machines, artillery, weapons and aircraft parts from both World Wars. The castle has served as a film set since the 1920s, appearing in Ivanhoe (1952), El Cid (1961), Elizabeth (1998) and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). Thomas Malory used it as the model for Joyous Gard, Lancelot's castle in the Arthurian legend.
Daily tours let you walk through state rooms, dungeons, and battlements, though some areas involve stairs and uneven stone paths. Wheelchair access reaches only the ground floor and courtyard, while upper levels remain difficult to navigate.
Archaeologists digging here since the 1960s unearthed the Bamburgh Beast and the Bamburgh Sword, two finds that prove metalworking happened on this rock. These objects show that craftsmen forged weapons and tools right here, rather than importing them from elsewhere.
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