Dunstanburgh Castle 



Dunstanburgh Castle

Introduction:

Dunstanburgh Castle

A great fourteenth century northern England castle.  Uninhabited for centuries it was in its day a powerful centre allied with two other castles Alnwick and Bambugh.  This group of castles was known to have been the key to the defenses of the area in the later Middle Ages.  Of these three Dunstanburgh remain largely untouched .  Dunstanburgh even today still shows how difficult it was to approach.  You cannot get there by car and need to walk a mile and a half over moorland to reach it..  It sits on a natural basalt promontary that stretches out into the sea.  It is thought that Thomas, Earl of Lancaster chose the spot to build the castle after the English defeat at Bannockburn.
The area enclosed by the castle was 11 acres - enough to bring in people and animals from the surrounding coutry side when the Scots attacked on their raiding parties. 
The man responsible for the design of the castle was Master Elias, the mason who also worked for James of St George.  The castle was modernised in 1380 - 4.

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