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Conserving Dunstanburgh

Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

Owned by the National Trust and in the care of English Heritage, Dunstanburgh Castle lies on the headland of Northumbria between the villages of Craster and Embleton. Construction was initiated in 1313 by Earl Thomas of Lancaster, the second richest man behind King Edward II and was most likely the result of increased hostility between the pair. By the time of the Earl’s execution in 1322 (following an unsuccessful rebellion in 1321), the castle was largely complete. As the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt remodelled elements of the site and made several improvements to the castle during the late 14th century to strengthen it against the Scots. However, the castle did not play a significant role in border warfare.

Dunstanburgh Castle was later held for the Lancastrians during the War of The Roses but sustained substantial damage and by the early 16th century it had fallen into a notable state of decay.

On the west curtain wall, the Lilburn Tower (pictured here) with its turrets still visible remains an imposing figure to this day.

Extent of Works

In the interests of public safety and structural integrity, a schedule of repair was prepared by architects and historic consultants, Spence & Dower to carry out repairs to masonry in the South face of the screen wall between the Gatehouse and the Constable’s Tower. The works briefly include the removal of loose stone and mortar to anticipate its accidental fall, cutting out structurally damaged stone and either replacing it and/or indenting with new brownieside stone extracted and supplied by Hutton Stone Quarry in Berwick.

Associated works include the raking out of mortar joints, filling and consolidating cavities and re-pointing with a lime mortar with fragments of shell encompassed within the mix to replicate the existing. Investigation into the possibility of removing and re-pointing areas of over-hard ‘Scotch’ pointing was also to be carried out.

Posted on 10 October 2007 by Jim Croft and filed under .

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