It sometimes seems that castles are everywhere in England. They are not, of course, but there certainly are a lot of castles. Some are ruins, giving glimpses of a time gone by, and others are still in beautiful condition, restored to allow a more complete snapshot of their past.
We had visited Ludlow Castle (built soon after the Norman conquest, the castle was home to intrigue and romance - http://www.ludlowcastle.com) in the past, and enjoyed touring the ruins, which are still relatively complete. On this trip we viewed it from the surrounding hills.
Driving north from Ludlow, is Beeston Castle (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/beeston-castle-and-woodland-park/). Sitting high on a rocky crag, with curtain walls restricting access up the hillside, Beeston commanded everything around it.
In Northumberland we visited Alnwick Castle (https://www.alnwickcastle.com), a magnificently preserved castle, which has been used as a setting for many well-known films and television programs, from Harry Potter to Downton Abbey. By the way, in an unusual combination of pronunciation variations, nearby is the river Aln, pronounced like the name, Alan. Consistently, the nearby town of Alnmouth is pronounced Alan-mouth (the mouth of the Aln river). However, Alnwick is pronounced Ah-nick.
Bamburgh Castle, just a bit south of Holy Island, dates to the 6th Century, but most of the parts you now visit were added, renovated, and expanded in much more recent times.
Before leaving Northumberland, we took some photos of Warkworth Castle, only a short walk from our B&B.
The last castle we visited was in the Lakes District: Kendal Castle, in Kendal (http://www.visitcumbria.com/sl/kendal-castle). According to the posted signs, the original castle was built on a nearby hill much earlier, but a new castle was built in the present location as a fortified manor house in the early 1200's.
Credits:
Scott Thomas scottthomasimages.com