Prudhoe Castle - Northumberland
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Prudhoe Castle

Location OS Landranger sheet 88 NZ 092634

How to get there From A695 Prudhoe bypass, follow signs for castle at roundabout.

Odinel de Umfraville is thought to have built the Keep, Curtain walls and the lower stage of the Gatehouse. First mention 1173-74. Castle was restored to Thomas Percy by the crown in 1557. The castle is in the custody of English Heritage

click on first picture for wide view

Where are these faces in the wall ?
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History

NZ 092634/Ruin/EH

The Castle stands on a steep slope above the South bank of the River Tyne. On the probable site of a an earlier wooden stronghold. The Castle is considered by some to have been built in late Norman times by Ordinel de Umfraville the son of Robert when the barony of Prudhoe was added to the district of Redesdale held by the Umfravilles by Henry I.

Passing through many hands over the centuries in 1808-10 High Smithson, Earl of Northumberland repaired the keep and the curtain wall, cleared the ruined domestic buildings and built a new house for the resident steward. It was handed over to the care of the state in 1965. The shape of a figure of eight, the inner and outer baileys, now separated by a Georgian manor house built on the site of earlier residential buildings.

Within the inner bailey, the most substantial building is C12 great tower. Originally two storeys high, extended in C14/C15 to provide a further level with turrets. Only the south west turret still exists. Adjacent to the great tower lie a range of C13 buildings. Towards the west of the inner bailey are two rounded towers, also dating from C13. The tower in the north west corner of the bailey is virtually intact, whereas only the base remains of the south west tower. Of several early buildings contained in the outer ward, C12 great hall foundations are visible and a C12 gatehouse with C13 chapel above survive.

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Prodhom

Both prints from "Border Atiquities of England and Scotland" Nov 1813
JMW Turner c1825 © British Museum
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