Bamburgh Castle

Built on a black crag of volcanic dolerite belonging to the Whin Sill, where a Celtic British fort called Din Guarie stood before it, possibly the capital of the kingdom of Bernicia from around 420 until Ida took it in 547. It changed hands between Britons and Anglo-Saxons three times before passing to the Anglo-Saxons for good in 590. The Normans built the castle that forms the core of the present one, and it became Crown property after a revolt in 1095. The Victorian industrialist William Armstrong bought it and completed its restoration.