soon

Castles · 2026

“Alnwick Castle”

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, the great border fortress — its keep and towers set above the river and the green of the park.

Alnwick Castle — original ink and watercolour

Details

TitleAlnwick Castle
PlaceAlnwick, England
Year2026
CategoryCastles
Dimensions14.8 × 21 cm (A5)
TechniqueInk and Watercolor on Clairefontaine paper
Palette of the work
Request information

This piece is part of my collection. Originals will soon be available to buy online — write to me in the meantime.

The subject

Alnwick Castle

The second-largest inhabited castle in England, Alnwick has guarded the Northumberland town of the same name for the better part of a thousand years — and lately doubled as Hogwarts.

Home of the Percy family, Dukes of Northumberland, since 1309, it began as a Norman stronghold above the River Aln and grew into a vast medieval-and-Georgian pile. Film-goers know its walls as Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter films, and as Brancaster in Downton Abbey.

I drew the great gatehouse and keep, the curtain wall with its carved stone figures standing guard along the battlements.

It is a colour page — warm stone against a northern sky.

Where
Alnwick, Northumberland
Family
the Percys
Since
1309
On screen
Hogwarts & Downton
Size
2nd-largest inhabited in England
Alnwick Castle, the keep and towers above the lawn
Alnwick Castle — the keep and curtain wall of the Percys’ stronghold.Photo: IanChristopherWeston — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The gatehouse and barbican of Alnwick Castle
The barbican and gatehouse — the castle’s medieval entrance.Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A castle so complete it has become a film set — but under the costumes it is pure Northumbrian stone.

Ink carries the towers, the gatehouse and the little stone sentinels on the walls; the washes keep the stone warm and the sky cool.

It is a crowd-pleaser of a castle, and I drew it as one — generous, solid, unmistakably English.

See also · Castles Bamburgh Castle · Windsor Castle Before the Rain · Harlech Castle