Bamburgh Castle in Northumbria has a rich history, reaching all the way back to 547 AD when Bernicia was one of the seven powerful British kingdoms. Ida, the Angelian (Germans who will be known as Anglo Saxons) captures the citadel from the Welsh Britons, and passes it on to his blood thirsty grandson, Aethelfrith, whose wife, Bebba, renames the fortress Bebbanburgh, giving birth to the name of Bamburgh. His son, Oswald the Fair, raised in Iona, returns to rule, granting nearby Lindisfarne to Bishop Aidan, where the famous monastery ruins still stand.

The Vikings destroyed the fort in 993, William lands at Bamburgh in 1066 and the Normans rebuilt the castle, which is the core that remains today. Robert de Mowbray, the Earl of Northumbria (Bernicia and Deira have blended into Northumbria) holds Bamburgh until William Rufus and Henry I Beauclerc (my 28th great grandfather, sons of William) come along. A long line of kings control the castle, improvements are made, comforts are added. The Great Tower was built in 1164 at the cost of £4, glass and chimneys are added. The 1400's include the start of Scottish raids, followed by the War of the Roses, when the castle was seized by Richard de Neville (another grandfather) the Earl of Warwick. Bamburgh was the first English castle to be defeated by artillery.

King James I awards his last loyal castle keeper (governor of the castle) Claudius Forster with Bamburgh Castle, which leaves royal hands forever. From the Forster family to Bishop of Dunham, a coast guard station in 1781, finally the castle is purchased by Lord William Armstrong of Cragside in 1894 for £60,000, who plans to use it for a gentlemen's convalescent home, complete with hydro-electricity, and central heating and air conditioning systems. The work was completed by his great nephew, William, with a final cost of over one million pounds. At the end, William kept the castle as a family home.