Harbottle Castle

This was very definitely serendipity. After visiting the Lady Well, we drove to Harbottle because the road map marked a castle in the village. We drove through the village without seeing anything and then examined the map more closely and headed back to where the red dot seemed to be. All that was there was a rather large house from the 1800s and we concluded that the map was mistaken.

Just as I was turning the van - for the road was a dead end - a woman came out of the house, heading for her car. I wound down my window and asked her if she knew where the castle was and she said that the house was it, but then told us of a ruined castle just a little beyond where we had turned back, which had been spoiled to build the house!

I thanked her and we drove through the village again and sure enough, there was the castle and the car park. When we climbed up to it, we were astonished at the size of the place: clearly, in its heyday it had been a major fortress! The castle had an interesting history, which I retell in this short film.