Graded locations

Listed buildings are graded in each location in this blog. Eg. Grade I, II* II of grade I is of most importance. Grade A relates to Scotland. See BLB

Tuesday 18 August 2015

DUNSTANBURGH CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND

Painting by Jules
LOCATION: DUNSTAN, NORTHUMBERLAND 

NUMBER OF ALLEGED GHOSTS:
THE EARL OF LANCASTER 
SIR GUY THE SEEKER 
AN UNKNOWN LADY

Name: Dunstanburgh Castle
Locality: Craster, Northumberland NE66 3TG
Built: 1313
Owner: English Heritage, National Trust
Grade I
Website: EH

Ghoulish Punishments


Earl of Lancaster is said to stalk Dunstanburgh Castle, carrying his butchered head that Edward IIs executioner totally screwed up at the beheading, which took eleven strokes to sever it.

Photo by Jules


Visit this place at night its seriously creepy and desolate. Take suitable footware and be prepared to walk a couple of miles. Beware of the cows.

Dunstanburgh Castle 07

We had spent a week roughing it on the Northumberland coast in the last weeks of September 06. Ok not entirely true. We spent a week in complete luxury in our newly purchased mobile home, not quite a ghost hunting winnebago but it will suffice, it does come in handy on long spooky jaunts. The evening was drawing in and we decided to pay Dunstanburgh Castle a visit. The castle looked near but it would be a 4 mile walk there and back. We had to walk across two farmers fields and down a long country lane that was never ending until we reached the coastline, a golf course ran alongside it. The castle looked fantastic in the distance, sitting there on the basalt above the sea, it looked like something from a children’s fairy-tale. As we walked nearer the castle it seemed to be getting further away, a strange optical illusion. We had to pass some cows on the way to the top, we had no option but to walk past them, they just gave us a brief look but we were slightly nervous of our bovine audience, especially with having the dog with us, so we clambered the very steep slope above them to avoid a stampede, but they just ignored us and carried on chewing.


Dunstanburgh Castle

We had passed a young couple on our accent, she was wearing very high heeled sandals, ridiculous footwear for that terrain, she precariously planned her route, personally I thought she was crazy. We eventually reached the entrance to the castle, we were disappointed that it was shut and bolted. The English heritage sign on the gate said “The castle will shut at 5.30pm” we looked at our watch it was 6.05pm. The entrance fee for adults was £2.70 !! What a cheeky admission price English heritage, its only a ruin I shouted ! Been brave and slightly naughty, I climbed over the gate and took a look around whilst my partner and the dog waited for me outside. The whole castle had an electric fence around it, I wasn’t sure if that was to keep unsuspecting visitors out our to keep the cattle in. I walked under the stone archway into the gatehouse half expecting a security guard to jump up behind me, but no one was there to welcome me in, not even the ghost of Sir Guy the Seeker. The place was deserted and desolate, the ticket office was bolted and by the time I’d walked past the ticket office there was nothing else to see apart from a large field and a lone tower in the distance, I was still moaning to myself about the outlandish price to get in to see a field ! I decide to jog to the tower, I had a quick look around and jogged back. The gatehouse was creepy, I stuck my head around this dark L shaped corridor that led to nowhere and noticed a figure looking around the wall, when all of a sudden this creepy howl came circling around me, the wind howled around the place making really strange noises through the holes in the walls. I convinced myself the figure was just my imagination going wild, I was spooked, so I legged it out of there. By the time we got back it was dark.
 Dunstanburgh Castle - geograph.org.uk - 926555

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