Prudhoe Castle (named for "Proud Hill" above the river Tyne) was built in the 1200s to replace a timer castle structure that occupied the site from the early 1100s. It was owned by the Percy family and saw a lot of action on the Scottish-English border, but it is the only castle in the north to have prevented siege by the Scottish. Scottish King William failed to take the castle and had a fit of rage destroying trees and plants around the site. My visit to Prudhoe Castle was in August of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, and as a result, I was not able to tour the castle keep due to a one-way system and social distancing in place. However, I was able to walk through a couple of rooms with information about the history of the castle and found objects (mostly weaponry) in the cases.
The castle is surrounded by a moat. A Georgian house has been built on the site of earlier medieval structures. The chapel, which is located in a room up a staircase to the left of the gatehouse upon entering contains the earliest example of an oriel window in England.
The chapel with the window is pictured below.
I explored the exterior of the castle.
There were some structures dating from medieval times that have been toen down.
On one of the bricks in the castle, a prehistoric design was discovered.
After exploring what I could inside the inner and outer wards of the castle, I had a quick walk around the moat to look up at the castle.
Since the keep and possible other areas of the castle were shut due to coronavirus, I plan to return to explore the castle at a later date.
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