Exploring the Abandoned Twizel Castle part 2

 

Following on from Wednesday's post, here I have the second half of the photos I took back in August while my Mam and I explored Twizel Castle. If you haven't seen that post and are interested in more photos as well as a bit of a background to Twizel Castle and how it came to be please do pop over by clicking here > Exploring the Abandoned Twizel Castle.

I've probably mentioned it many a time by now, but my camera is well due an upgrate so I wasn't expecting much from these photos on a whole. Funnily enough it's the 'indoor' darker photos that I most worried about even being usable but I actually like those more than those that had plenty of light. I've never been interested in them before (I'm still not to be fair), but I would love to have had a drone purely out of curiosity about what can be seen from above. 

The amount of little details, colours, materials and gorgous architactural structures here really are beautiful and I wish it had a different story. To see it in better condition or to at least know it had been loved and lived in properly - I would love to have called such a magical place home.
I hope you enjoy these photos. I may pop back in winter to see the difference without the greenery of nature taking over. 

To see an image of the Castle at the height of it's glory, click here, it's SO worth it!!

Until next time...

Exploring the Abandoned Twizel Castle

 

About 10 miles from where I grew up and a mere 2 miles along the road from where my Mam grew up is this magical ruin. Considering my interest in history, castles and the local area, I hadn't ever actually visited Twizel Castle! These photos were taken back on August 17th when Mam and I ventured out there for a walk.

The 'castle' dates back to the 18th century but the estate has been occupied (or at least owned) since the 15th century when a Tower House originally resided on the land for around 80 years before it was destroyed by a Scots army. In the early 16th century the estate was sold and a survey from 1561 reports that remnants of a tower house and a barmkin (defensive enclosure) were the only structures there at that time.

An inventory from 1595 mentions a new chamber, a gallery, and chambers in the tower. Today, blocked windows, a chamfered doorway and the original northeast angle quoins are all that can be seen of the medieval structure - some of which can be seen in the photos below.

The estate was sold again in the late 17th century to Sir Francis Blake who ''worked on the recreation of the castle as a Gothic Revival mansion, designed by architect James Nesbit of Kelso to be five levels tall. Despite some forty years of work, the project was never completed.''*

In 1882 during work on the Tillmouth Park estate, which is nearby, there was some demolition of Twizel Castle to recycle the stone in the new construction.

It's very sad to see the building in person and know its history because it's easy to imagine how it could have been so magical. The current condition is extremely poor and I highly recommend treading with much caution if you do visit. We did not touch anything and moved through the inside areas carefully and quickly. 

The above is a very quick summary that I have gathered from my reading but please do visit the links below for a much fuller history. I have a part two to this post due to so many photos, so to refrain from rambling too long I'll talk more about it in the next part. 

*Information sourced from Wikipedia, Friends of Berwick and District Museum and Archives, 

I'd love to hear of any other wonderful castle or ruins in the North East (from Berwick to Sunderland) that you reccomend!

Until next time...