Castles · 2026

“Bamburgh Castle”

Bamburgh Castle on its basalt crag above the Northumberland coast — the long grey curtain wall and keep stretched against the sea sky.

Details

TitleBamburgh Castle

PlaceBamburgh, England

Year2026

CategoryCastles

Dimensions21 × 29.7 cm (A4)

TechniqueInk and Watercolor on Clairefontaine paper

Palette of the work

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

The subject

Bamburgh Castle

On a black crag of rock above a vast Northumberland beach stands Bamburgh — a long, dramatic castle facing the North Sea, one of the great silhouettes of the English coast.

It sits on the Whin Sill, a ridge of hard dark dolerite, where there has been a stronghold since the age of the Anglo-Saxons — Bamburgh was the royal seat of the kingdom of Bernicia. The castle is Norman at its core, much restored in the nineteenth century by the industrialist Lord Armstrong.

I drew the long curtain wall and keep stretched along the crag, the dunes and the sea lying below.

Colour gives it the cold clean light of that coast.

Coast: Northumberland
On: the Whin Sill crag
Was: royal seat of Bernicia
Core: a Norman keep
Faces: the North Sea

Bamburgh Castle on its green crag under a blue sky — Bamburgh Castle riding its basalt crag above the Northumberland coast.Photo: mattbuck (category) — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bamburgh Castle seen from the beach at low tide — From the sands below — the castle on the Whin Sill, facing the North Sea.Photo: mattbuck (category) — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A castle that seems to grow out of the rock — I drew the long line of it riding the crag above the sea.

Ink for the walls and towers strung along the ridge; washes for the stone, the dunes and the grey-blue water.

Few castles have a better stage. I simply gave it the horizon and let it stand there.