Bamburgh Castle

First written reference to Bamburgh Castle is from 547 as the seat of an Anglo-Saxon ruler called Ida. The core of the current castle was built by Normans in the 11th century. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery, at the end of a nine-month long siege by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. The castle lay in ruins until it was restored by various owners during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong, who completed the restoration.