Bothal Castle is a
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
and
stately home
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in the
village of the same name near the
River Wansbeck, between
Morpeth and
Ashington in the English county of
Northumberland. Botl is
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
for a dwelling. Bothal could refer to a particular dwelling or hall.
It was fortified before the
Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a
Scheduled Ancient Monument and a
Grade I listed building.
In 1095, Bothal was given by King
William Rufus to
Guy I de Balliol, whose daughter Alice married William
Bertram Bertram may refer to:
Places
* Bertram, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Australia
*Bertram, Iowa, United States, a city
* Bertram, Texas, United States, a city
* Bertram Building, a historic building in Austin, Texas
* Bertram Glacier, Palmer ...
, Baron of Mitford, who probably built a hall house. Several generations later, in 1343, Sir Robert Bertram was given permission to turn his
manor house into a
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
, including an impressive gatehouse. The gate tower and fragments of
curtain wall are
medieval, a good deal of which still survive to this day. Through the marriage of Bertram's daughter Hellen to Sir Robert Ogle (d. c.1363),
[Wallis, J. (1769). The Natural History and Antiquities of Northhumberland: And of So Much of the County of Durham A Lies Between the Rivers Tyne and Tweed, Commonly Called North Bishoprick. (Vol. II, pp. 551). N.p.: Strahan]
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the estate passed to the
Ogle family in the 14th century.
In August 1583 Cuthbert Ogle, 7th
Baron Ogle, negotiated a marriage between his daughter Jane and
Edward Talbot, a son of
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury's agents visited Bothal, and described the house as 'a castle battled, and not unlike to
Nether Haddon where Master John Manners doth dwell.'
In 1591 the estate passed to the
Cavendish-
Bentinck family (
Dukes of Portland), through the marriage of Catherine, Countess of Ogle to
Sir Charles Cavendish of
Welbeck.
King James visited on 5 May 1617 on his way to Scotland and stayed for two nights.
[John Nichols, ''Progresses of James the first'', vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 297.]
Restoration was carried out in the 19th century.
The building is used as a private residence of the
Cavendish-
Bentinck family and also houses the
Welbeck Estate Office. The castle is in an excellent state of repair and is not accessible for the public.
Footnotes
Sources
*Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, ''The David & Charles Book of Castles'', David & Charles, 1980.
External links
Images of Bothal Castle and VillageKeys to the Past
{{Castles in North East England
Castles in Northumberland
Grade I listed castles
Grade I listed houses
Grade I listed buildings in Northumberland
Scheduled monuments in Northumberland
Ashington
William II of England
Bentinck family