Dunstanburgh Castle (Copyright © Don Brownlow)


Dunstanburgh Castle. Photo by Andy Brown, 2003.

[NU 25742192] Dunstanburgh Castle (Remains of). (1)

See attached pamphlet. (2)

The only extant earthwork is a stretch of rock-cut ditch at the south-east angle of the curtain. Surveyed at 1/2500. (3)

Dunstanburgh Castle, Grade I.
Castle. 1313 under Master Elias the mason for Thomas, second Earl of Lancaster. Gatehouse remodelled as great tower and new gateway constructed shortly after 1380 under Henry of Holme for John of Gaunt. Some restoration in 1885 when the blocking of early 14th century gate passage removed. Squared sandstone with whinstone rubble core, except for roughly-squared limestone in east curtain.
Romano-British artefacts and -burh termination of the name indicate the headland was occupied in early times. (4)

Ten acre site. Begun in 1316 by Thomas Earl of Lancaster. Enlarged 14th century by John of Gaunt. Given to National Trust by Sir Ivan Sutherland Bt in 1961. (5)

NU 2582 2165. Dunstanburgh Castle: Romano-British settlement, 14th century enclosure castle and harbour, and World War II pillbox and foxhole. Scheduled RSM No 23231. Evidence for Roman occupation was found during partial excavations carried out within the castle in 1930 and 1931, when fragments of imported Rhenish millstones were found in addition to sherds of samian pottery. Although the precise nature of the occupation is not yet fully understood, the site is a likely setting for a small fort or signal station since the Roman frontier during the second half of the 2nd century AD ran from the Forth to the Clyde.

The enclosure castle was begun in 1313 and work on its walls and gatehouse appears to have been complete by 1316 when Edward II granted licence to crenellate. The gatehouse became the keep of the later castle and comprises two D-shaped drum towers separated by a rib-vaulted gate-passage. An outer barbican was removed in the later 14th century. Between 1372 and 1383 the gatehouse became the keep and a new gate-tower was built in the W curtain, protected by a barbican to which a screen wall or mantlet was later added. This wall ended in a second gateway which adjoined the SW tower of the keep. In 1382-83 an inner ward was created by the construction of narrow building ranges round a small courtyard. A large oven indicates that the N range included a bakehouse and the W range a kitchen. The inner ward, keep and gate occupy the SW angle of a much larger enclosure, bounded on all four sides by curtain walls and containing the remains of further defensive and domestic structures, including the buried remains of the castle's home farm, recorded as having an oak barn between 1454 and 1470. Only the W, S and E curtain walls are upstanding, the N having been greatly damaged by the sea from 1543. Included in the W curtain is the Lilburn Tower, built circa 1325 for John Lilburn, constable of Dunstanburgh. It is a three storey building with tall corner turrets projecting above its flat roof. Two further towers, Egyncleugh Tower and Constable's Tower, exist in the S curtain, both dating from the later 14th century. The remaining E curtain was originally a flat topped earthwork faced with stone, with three inserted garderobe chambers. A wall was constructed on top of this earthwork in the 15th century.

Approximately 500m S of the castle and NW of the inlet called Nova Scotia is an area formerly occupied by the castle harbour. In 1314 a ditch was dug from the harbour to Embleton Bay, N of the castle. This ditch, which measures circa 4m deep and 24m wide, made the castle and the area lying between it and the harbour into an island, with access via a drawbridge. The area enclosed by the ditch contains post medieval ridge and furrow beneath which possible medieval building foundations were found in 1949. In addition, circa 50m S of the castle keep are the earthwork remains of a roughly square enclosure flanked to the N by the foundations of a range of buildings forming two sides of a courtyard. These remains have been interpreted as an outwork commanding the approach to the castle but may alternatively be the site of a later farmstead (see NU 22 SE 1).

A World War II pillbox [indexed as a Type FW3/22] and foxhole lie just N of where the ditch and harbour joined.

From early in the Norman period Dunstanburgh was part of the barony of Embleton but no castle was built there until Thomas Earl of Lancaster, High Steward of England, ordered its construction in 1313. Unusually for the area and the time, the castle was not built to defend the Scottish Marches nor was it the centre of the baronial fee. Rather, it appears to have been intended as a bolt-hole for Lancaster, who spent most of his life in opposition to King Edward II and his favourites, even to the point of unlawfully executing Piers Gaveston. It did not serve him, however, and he himself was executed in 1322 after the Battle of Boroughbridge. For four years the castle continued under its constables, providing horsemen for the army that invaded Scotland in 1322 and, in 1326, ships to protect the king against Queen Isabella. In the same year the castle returned to the heirs of Earl Thomas and, in 1362, was succeeded to by John of Gaunt who ordered the repairs and alterations in the 1380s, in response to Scottish raids. John died in 1399 and was succeeded by his son, Henry Bolingbroke, who in the same year usurped the throne of Richard II to become King Henry IV. In this way Dunstanburgh became a royal castle governed by constables and appears to have been allowed to decay. However, annual expenditure reports made to the Duchy of Lancaster from 1436 show that large-scale repairs were being carried out in the years leading up to the Wars of the Roses when, but for a brief period in 1462, Dunstanburgh remained a Lancastrian stronghold. It was finally taken in 1464 in a Yorkist victory that, together with those at the recent battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham, ended the Lancastrian cause in the north. From that time it fell into ruin and in 1604 was sold to the Crown. In 1885 the original gate-passage through the keep was reopened and the gate arch that can be seen today was added to the front. The castle has been in State care since 1930 and is a Grade I Listed Building. (6)

Geophysical survey of selected areas carried out for improved interpretation of areas within the area of the Scheduled Monument, and in the case of Area A inside the castle curtain walls itself. Within Area A reistance anomalies may indicate the presence of buildings tucked in beside the curtain wall - though unclear if these were lean-to buildings or free-standing buildings. In Area B resistance survey identified further rubble and tumble to that evident on the surface, and at depth below this a possible rectangular structure. In the area immediately south of the gate to the castle the resistance data reflected the ridge and furrow earthworks visible as earthworks. Magnetic surveys were carried out in all three areas, though the identification and interpretation of anomalies was in each hindered by the underlying igneous geology of the area. (7)

Pre-acquisition excavations carried out seem to have been limited to the clearance of the western curtain wall foundations, clearance of a strip behind the eastern curtain wall, clearance of a well, and emptying the external southern ditch. A number of prehistoric and Roman finds were made across the whole area, with provenances for some of these recorded in unpublished notebooks by the works foreman kept with English Heritage's regional store. Other Medieval and Post Medieval finds were similarly made unstratified. Further excavations carried out in October 1929 revealed the structures adjoining the Constable's Tower.
The circuit of the walls includes a number of amorphous spreads and mounds of material. Where exposed and observed during field survey it is thought that they are composed of only fine soil without stones. These may be thought evidence of the many individual pieces of excavation and restoration work carried out across the whole of the plateau site which the castle occupies. Recent work has included surveying the interior of the castle, including proposing a new scheme for the programme of construction, the clarification of the form and dates of the individual structures present, the location and identification as earthworks of previous investigative work, and a thorough survey of the surroundings of the castle. Individual features located are noted within the castle under this HER ID number, whilst new and amended records have also been prepared for those sites outside the curtain walls of the castle. In part these mounds stratigraphically overlie ridge and furrow within the enclosed area. Modern remains also include a weapons pit immediately in the shelter of the Lilburn Tower; this dates to World War 2 defence of the area. (8)

A signal station is recorded at Dunstanburgh Castle as part of the 1803-04 east coast scheme of coastal signal stations to give warning of a French invasion fleet. [It is uncertain if the castle towers were re-used at this time or what form the signal station took]. (9)

Listed. (10a-c)

Analysis of Dunstanburgh Castle as part of the Earl of Lancaster's estates. (10d)

An examination of the accounts of John of Gaunt's building accounts and of the surviving structures at Dunstanburgh suggests that the work was a response to the Peasants' Revolt or Rebellion of 1381. Gaunt's works created an inner defensive work behind the main gate and gave greater security to the lord's apartments. (10e)

Dunstanburgh Castle was mapped as a part of the Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey for the North East. The castle and internal banks are visible on air photographs as structures and earthworks. The features are still extant on the latest 1999 Ordnance Survey vertical photography.
(10f)

Between 2003 and 2005, English Heritage's Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team lead a multidisciplinary investigation of Dunstanburgh Castle and its environs, in Northumberland. In addition to a Level 3 analytical field survey at 1:1 000 scale covering 36 hectares, the project also comprised documentary research, rapid architectural investigation of the standing remains, environmental sampling of waterlogged ground outside the Scheduled area, and the gathering of oral testimony from local people. The earthwork survey was carried out using survey-grade GPS and extensive ground modelling was undertaken to answer various questions relating to water management. A study of Dunstanburgh's place in local folklore was undertaken by local resident Katrina Porteous, and incorporated into the final report. Geophysical survey was subsequently targeted at three areas to follow up specific questions raised by the field survey, and a separate report on this was produced. The project was undertaken in partnership with The National Trust, in order to inform conservation and management of the castle's environs through a Higher Level Stewardship scheme, and the re-presentation of the Guardianship area. It was carried out concurrently with an investigation of Craster radar station c.1km to the south, also undertaken by the Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team (Event record 1501045). The location, scale and daring architectural style of the castle may have been partly intended to challenge Bamburgh Castle and Edward II's weak rulership. This is supported by the grand scale of the castle, the use of architectural motifs which recall the Welsh castles of Edward I, and the designed landscape setting which includes a series of three meres (NU 22 SE 44; NU 22 SE 46; NU 22 SE 52). Lancaster may have been drawing on Arthurian mythology through the use of a watery landscape. The harbour at Novia Scotia (NU 22 SE 48) may help explain the positioning of Lancaster's gatehouse, which is directed towards this. The discovery of a possible promontory fort underlying the castle may be the source of the `burgh' element of the castle's name (NU 22 SE 54). The possible outwork mentioned in the Scheduled Monument Notification (4) is thought to be a post-medieval farmstead (NU 22 SE 51). A full report, part of the Research Department Report Series, is available from the NMR, reference RDRS 26/2006. (10g)

The Dunstanburgh Castle English Heritage Guidebook, published 2007 includes a "tour" of the remains of the castle and an overview of its history. There are features on the medieval harbour associated with the castle, along with discussion of the site before the castle and the later role of the area around the castle in World War Two. There are additional features on historical personalities associated with the Castle. (10h)

Multi-disciplinary survey report on Dunstanburgh Castle , published in 2006- see also source 13 above. (10i)

Article on the building of the great gatehouse of Dunstanburgh Castle by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was a cousin, and rival, of Edward II. The gatehouse was built to make a statement about the earl's perceived power: its façade gives the illusion that it is five storey's high. It does not face any of the landward approach routes but rather looks out tot sea above the man made harbour, presumably as a challenge to Royal authority. (10)

Further article on the Authurian imagery utilised in the setting of Dunstanburgh Castle. (10)

General association with HER 5680. (10)