Lindisfarne Castle TD15 2SH
Entry: Free for NT members
Open: seasonal - check website
Dogs: on leads
Reviews: 0
Repawter: Bertie Race
About:
Lindisfarne Castle is really two buildings; the comfortable Edwardian holiday home with the Lutyens features and the cosy atmosphere is the obvious one as it is what we see today. But hiding behind all this is the old fort, dating from Tudor times and taking up three quarters of the Castle's history. Lindisfarne Castle as we know it first appears in about 1550, but wasn't in any completed state until 1570. For the next three hundred years, the fort (as it was known then) was home to temporary garrisons of soldiers on detatchment from the larger force based at nearby Berwick. Their main job was to man the guns, watch the horizon for trouble, and try and stave of boredom with gunnery practice. Aside from a couple of incidents, the Castle could be said to have had a quiet military history through this period. The fact it was still standing when Edward Hudson discovered it in 1901 is testement to that. His friend the architect Edwin Lutyens was soon to dramatically change the building over the next few years, from a fort to a holiday home.
Many of the features of the old fort were lost during the Lutyens renovation of 1903-1906 but if you delve a little deeper and don't accept what you see in front of you, parts of the old building reappear before you.
In the Dining Room, for example, Lutyens created a new fireplace, laid a distinctive herringbone brick floor and carved out a huge window bay with tracery window in stone. He left untouched a bread oven and salt hole from the soldier's time (probably dating from the 16th-century) along with the low vertical walls which are about as old as anything in the Castle. The vaulted ceiling, installed in the 18th-century to bear the weight of a new gun battery above. The Dining Room stands as the best surviving example in the house of building work from all periods of development.
Linda Lilburn worked at the Castle with her parents, brother, and sister-in-law
Opening Hours:
Castle: There are verying opening times, so check the website for the day of your visit.
Garden: Open all day.
Parking:
There is a large main island parking area. It is strongly recommended that all visitors park there as LIndisfarne is a small island and there are narrow roads with very few non resident parking facilities around the island.
*NOTE* - The whole island is only about 3 miles by 1.5 miles so it is not too much of an inconvenience to use the main island parking area.
Dog Friendly:
Dogs are welcome but must be kept on leads and under control as there are a wide variety of wildlife on the island.
Facilities:
Limited toilet facilities at the castle.
Cafes and toliet facilities available in the main village on the island.
Mobility may be an issue with parts of the castle as it is a historical building.
Notes:
Dogs are allowed around the castle and grounds but only humans are allowed inside the castle.
Contact:
Email:
Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Tel: 01289389244
