Jules travels - Bamburgh Castle

LOCATION: BAMBURGH, NORTHUMBERLAND
NUMBER OF GHOSTS 4 Plus
DR. JOHN SHARP
JANE GREEN
A KNIGHT IN ARMOUR
A BABY

Jules says: A massive castle to visit, usually very busy with tourists, walk around the exterior of the building at night including the dunes, take your torch !

Bamburgh Castle has got to be one of the largest castles I have ever visited and I've been to a few in my time. Both close up and from far away the building is spectacular. I was on Holy Island and you could just see the castle in the mist as if it was actually floating on the surface of the sea. In the picture above you can get an idea how tall the place is, Bamburgh Castle is actually sunk through the volcanic dolerite and stands at a depth of 45 metres. Parts of the building have been rebuilt that is obvious. Originally the citadel was made of wood round about 600AD. It was semi-derelict round about the 1600's. As you enter one of the first rooms, there is in the centre of the room an impressive wooden model of the castle. Then there is The Crewe Museum room which use to be the medieval castle's kitchen, this room was restored by Dr John Sharp, he is one of the known ghosts that wander through the building. The King's hall is most impressive, with armour borrowed from the Tower of London; I was half expecting a spectral body to appear in them. An array of blunderbuses and swords lay in glass display units. As I walked through to the passageway my eyes were drawn to rather a large and very old curtain, it was made by Russian prisoners of the Crimean War, it was made out of their uniforms, in recognition of their humane treatment at the hands of their captors. I made a comment to my partner as I walked through the tapestry corridor, 'when you're walking through there is so much to see and you only take brief glances of various objects and you don't really take it all in how historical the pieces are'. We actually visited the castle on the exact day Most Haunted was showing the episode on TV which was ironical, watching the show back later, I hadn't realised I had walked through one of the most paranormally active parts of the building. We had also walked past the bakehouse and scullery where Stu Torevell has some strange experiences. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary whilst I was down there only a Daisy Patent vacuum cleaner from 1908 hehe.

My favourite room had to be the armoury room, there was a window in there and you could see just exactly how thick the walls were, at least 6 foot. Along the walls of the armoury room are pikes, halberds muskets and crossbows dating around about the Napoleonic invasion. On the wooden table at one end of the room is a drum and drumsticks, on it is a painting of a coast of arms, this is the drum that was seen to move by an unknown force.

Lastly, we entered the dungeon, it looked more like a wine cellar to me, made out to look like a dungeon, unconvincing dummies were shackled to the walls with fake cobwebs and rubbish sound effects. I had to giggle about it though and announced to all who was in earshot that it wasn't a patch on Chillingham Castles dungeons ! It raised a few smiles !