Lindisfarne Castle
Lindisfarne Castle is a 16th century castle on Lindisfarne Island, also Holy Island , near Berwick-upon-Tweed in the English county of Northumberland . The castle was significantly changed in 1901 by Edwin Lutyens . Holy Island is accessible from the mainland via a dam at low tide.
history
The castle stands in what was once a highly competitive border region between England and Scotland . Not only did the English and Scots fight each other there, the Vikings also often attacked the area. The castle was built in 1550, around the time the Lindisfarne Priory was dissolved. Building blocks from the priory were used as building material for the castle. For a castle, Lindisfarne Castle is rather small, more like a fort. It was built on the highest point of the island, a hill of dark rock called "Beblowe".
Lindisfarne's location in the North Sea exposed the island to attacks by the Scots and Norsemen, and in the Tudor period it became clear that stronger fortifications were needed, although the Norsemen were no longer a threat then. This led to the construction of a fort on Beblowe Crag in 1570–1572 , which formed the basis for the castle that has been preserved to this day.
After Henry VIII had the priory dissolved, his troops used their remains as naval camps. In 1542, Henry VIII ordered the Earl of Rutland to fortify the island against a possible Scottish invasion. By December 1547, Ralph Cleisbye , the captain of the fort, was equipped with the following guns: a wheeled Demi-Culverin , two brass sakers , a Falconet and another permanently mounted Demi-Culverin . Beblowe Crag itself was not fortified until 1549, and the military engineer Sir Richard Lee found only a derelict platform and a grass wall there in 1565. Elizabeth I then had work carried out on the fort, where it was strengthened and gun platforms were created for new developments in artillery technology. This work, carried out in 1570 and 1571, cost £ 1,191. When James I came to power in England, he united the kingdoms of England and Scotland and the need for a castle on the site was eliminated. At the time, the castle was still garrisoned from Berwick and protected the small port of Lindisfarne Island.
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The castle was briefly occupied by Jacobite rebels in the 18th century , but was soon retaken by Berwick royal soldiers who then imprisoned the rebels. However, these dug out and hid near the nearby Bamburgh Castle for nine days before they finally fled.
In later years the castle served as a lookout for the coast guard and became something of a tourist attraction. Charles Rennie Mackintosh sketched the old fort in 1901.
In 1901, the castle became the property of newspaper publisher Edward Hudson , who owned Country Life magazine . He had Edwin Luytens remodel the castle in the Arts and Crafts style . It is said that Hudson and his architect came across the building while traveling through Northumberland, climbing over the castle wall and exploring the interior of the castle.
The fenced-in garden, which was once the garrison's vegetable garden, was designed by Lutyen's long-time friend and colleague Gertrude Jekyll between 1906 and 1912. It is located a little way from the castle itself. In the years 2002-2006 it was restored according to Jekyll's original planting plans and is now cared for in the Reef Collection of the University of California at Berkeley . The castle, garden, and nearby limestone pits have been managed by the National Trust since 1944 and are open to the public.
Lutyens used upturned, abandoned boats ("herring buses") as shelters. Two of these boats were burned in 2005. They were replaced in 2006, and the third boat was renovated by the National Trust. The replacement of the two burned down boats with two new boat shelters can be seen on the DVD "Diary of an Island". There is shown how a fishing boat from Leith was cut apart in a boatyard in Eyemouth and the two shelters were then transported to the island and erected with a crane.
The Spanish architect Enric Miralles used Lutyens upside down “herring buses” as inspiration for his design of the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh .
Lutyens' conversions
Access to the castle is quite dramatic and involves a steep climb over the rocks that the castle stands on. Lutyens' original ascent route was not secured by railings or fences in order to give the visitor a feeling for the exposure of the location. When the future King George V and his wife Maria von Teck visited the castle in 1908, they are said to have been shocked by the ascent and the rough path.
As you enter the castle, you come across an entrance hall that is divided by large pillars that are somehow reminiscent of a church nave and whose dark red-brown stone contrasts with the whitewashed plaster. The hall has a bare stone floor.
The kitchen is almost as empty and is dominated by a large stone stove. Here, as in Castle Drogo , Lutyens uses space in an interesting way. Throughout the castle, he used stone, brick, slate, and wood to create simple shapes and fabric to demonstrate rustic, Spartan lifestyle. Although it is a castle, the building remains a homely place, where human dimensions determine the size of the room, but inappropriate architectural elements are used. In the scullery there is a small window above a stone sink, which is surrounded by a mechanism for operating the porthole gate .
If you go down into the dining room, you will find yourself inside the fort from the Tudor period. The vaults here and in the adjoining ship hold are very constructive because they form the foundation for the gun batteries above. The wide mantelpiece contains an old bread oven. Here Lutyens has expressed the age of the room with neo-Gothic tracery windows that are framed by curtains that swing outward and lie flat against the wall. One of the boundary walls is kept in intense Berlin blue , which contrasts with the fish-legged red brick floor.
Next door is the ship's room, where a green wall serves the same purpose. The furniture goes well with it with its many dark wood inlays in tables and cupboards. The few upholstered chairs and sofas have now faded to pastel tones. The largest bedroom on the east side is light and airy and also has curtains on pull-out rods. The Long Gallery was a new space created by Lutyens as a counterpart to the great galleries of Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. It's much smaller, but the use of sculpted stone arches and oak beams makes a great, but rustic, impression. Further up, another gallery has a raised platform at one end. From there, an oak door leads to the upper gun battery, from which one can enjoy a spectacular view along the coastline. The castle's music room was used by Guilhermina Suggia , a frequent visitor. A cello in this room reminds of this.
Film set
Lindisfarne Castle has been the setting for a number of films. Roman Polanski's classic film When Katelbach Comes ... from 1966, a psychological, comic drama starring Donald Pleasence , Lionel Stander and Françoise Dorléac , was shot entirely in and around the castle. It is the residence of Pleasences and Dorléac's characters. Polanski later returned to the castle to film some scenes for his 1971 film Macbeth , where Lindisfarne Castle stands for Glamis Castle . The use of the castle in Macbeth inspired the producers of the British television series Cold Feet (1998-2003) to use it for some exterior scenes in one episode while the interior scenes were filmed in Hoghton Tower . The castle was also used as a double for Mont San Pierre in the 1982 film The Scarlett Pimpernell, starring Anthony Andrews . An episode of the British television series Wolf Blood was filmed at Lindisfarne Castle.
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Starkey (editor): The Inventory of Henry VIII . Volume 1. Society of Antiquaries, 1998. p. 134.
- ^ Howard Colvin (editor): The History of the King's Works . Volume 4. Part 2. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1982. pp. 674-679.
- ^ Scots Parliament architect dies . BBC News Scotland. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
- ↑ Geoff Tibballs: Cold Feet: The Best Bits… . Granada Media, London 2000. ISBN 0-233-99924-8 . P. 211.
Web links
Koordinaten: 55° 40′ 8,4″ N, 1° 47′ 6″ W