Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

Sorting through photos and these are some of my favourites because the weather was just glorious. Although my real focus on this trip has been English gardens I have a bit of a thing for proper fortified castles that tower above the landscape. I stopped at this one during a drive up the east coast in Northumberland after visiting the recent garden at Alnwick Castle. It is quite close to Lindisfarne. The coast line is very beautiful and has what I think of (in my prejudiced way) as proper beaches, with golden sand and very little development, unlike the southern rocky beaches and the built up seaside towns in places like Brighton. There has been a castle here since about the 7th century AD I think, and i was the seat of the kings of Northumnbria at the time when England was split into several kingdoms.There is more history on the websit if you are interested. http://www.bamburghcastle.com/history.php

Photos. I didn't go in as I had to drive on to Scotland but I circled around the outside. Do you like the dramatic contrasts between blue sky and clouds in a period of only about 40 minutes!? Typical English summer weather.