North, to the North my son.

I have been further north, which is technically another country altogether, Scotland. However, this is the first time I have headed so far north and not left England behind. I am presently, in the least populated county in England, the county of Northumberland. It has this distinction of being the least populated county in England I was surprised by this, as I thought maybe it would Cornwall, or Cumbria, but no, I stand corrected (though I stand alone, as there are so few people to stand with me). Ancestral county of the Percy family, as Dukes of Northumberland. The ancestral seat being, Alnwick, although the county capital is now, Morpeth.  

It was quite a drive, the county is dissected by the A1/A1(M) heading along the east coast as it finally runs into Scotland. The proximity to Scotland seems to have defined the history and nature of the county. The Scots and the English often clashed in and around Northumberland, it being less difficult to penetrate by armed forces than the more rugged, mountainous Cumbria & lake district. The history has been one of being pulled back and forth between the two, at times, warring countries.  Hence the other quite impressive statistics that the county contains the most castles in England. The Dukes and Lords, often very powerful as they protected the south and the sovereign ruler from northern invasions that threatened the wealthy southern counties. They truly were the first defence from the Scottish armies of the medieval periods. Not always successful.

Today, we visited one of these castles. It's rather impressive, and by impressive I mean awe inspiringly impressive in such a way that it dominates the town it sits above. Approaching it from the west, as you reach the brow of the hill that leads into Bamburgh, Bamburgh castle seems to rise out of the ground and tower into the sky as you approach and become more insignificant under its great walls. It has the feeling of immortality about it. The original fortification/settlement on the volcanic hill goes back 1000's of years. The first dark age fortification was ransacked and destroyed by the Vikings who ravaged the eastern coast of England in the 10th century. Major building followed with the Norman conquest in the 11th and 12th century which saw a vast castle placed on this site and has been there ever since. Bamburgh Castle became the first castle defeated through siege by canon, during the wars of the roses, by the Earl of Warwick in 1464. 

Staring up at the castle you do get the impression that only through a sustained artillery bombardment could you break into such a place as it looks impervious to pre-artillery siege.

As a place to visit it is exceptionally good value, I thought. It is a large site, you have the inner area which can be walked around, the outward walls lined with the Napoleonic war cannons place to repel the much feared French invasion (the very reason for my hometown's two Napoleonic forts purpose built for this very reason), what Bamburgh had was a built and battle ready site that looked out over the north sea, only hundreds of metres from the sea, purpose built in hundreds of years prior to Napolean, which is exceptional forward planning.

Inside the castle you have a lot of rooms to wander through (in my case, chasing Mr Bubbles, who tours castles like he eats sausage and chips, fast and focused) as you pass through the more modern rooms and the display of wealth; through ceramics, plates, ornaments and furniture (the usual display of aristocratic wealth), is here in abundance. Never quite as grand as, for example, Chatsworth House, that still houses a duke. Bamburgh has for the last 100 years been a part of a family, whose wealth has come from industry. The pure blood nobility long departed form the ancestral seat. 

This in no way distracts from the ancient feeling as you move from the modern parts into the nearly 900 year old, Keep, believed to be built by, Henry II. Accessed now by a gallery you can see the structure change as you move into the keep, the walls and the stone work start to feel truly 'solid'. Passageways become narrower and lower and my 21st century 6ft 4in frame begins to feel to big to be comfrotable for the place, continually bending down to pass from room to room starts to become frustrating, but far less annoying than the chance of cracking my head on a piece of solid 800 year old stone and knocking myself out.

The sense of history is heightened by the armoury which has on display various things capable of disemboweling, ripping, tearing and generally ending lives in particularly gruesome and painful manner (though permanently), usually slumped holding the inside bits, on the outside. The keep has a real feel of belonging to the world of, A Games of Thrones and Bamburgh castle could easily drop straight into the world of Westeros and be home to one of the great houses, though being so far north, it would have to be that of the House of Stark. Dark, bleak and at times, I imagine terribly windswept, Bamburgh is a very beautiful and dramatic place indeed. a Testament also to the ability of the great builders who could conceive and then create in stone these vast fortifications.