The other day I mentioned scanning some photos of Brougham Castle in Cumbria and being still in the throes of the central heating work, I've been kept indoors and have been amusing myself by working my way through the old bag of photographic negatives.
The photo was taken in 1997 and is of Brough Castle, also in Cumbria. Brough is in a remote position along the A66 that crosses the country linking Cumbria with the north east. This road is exposed and affected frequently by high winds and snow in winter. The village of Brough is small and there is no car park for visitors to the castle which is reached through a cow field - mind your footing! The castle was first built around 1100 on the northern part of the Roman fort of Verteris. Above we see what is left of Clifford's Tower, built around 1300 by Robert Clifford. His grandfather had been a border baron of the southern marches of Wales and was great-nephew of a mistress of Henry II. A fairly tenuous link, but he traded his land in Monmouth for the Honour of Skipton in 1310 and came into ownership of several castles in the north.
Robert would have added the curtain wall and strengthened the existing keep. I climbed up that very dilapidated tower in the 1980s and stood on the tiny space enclosed by the railings at the top.
This photograph shows the view from the top of the keep, which has some ancient graffiti carved into the walls.
The main block of buildings adjoining the Round Tower were added fifty years later by Robert's grandson, Roger. This is all but ruined now as seen here, although one room is still whole and is used as a storeroom. The castle had been destroyed by the Scots in 1174, being rebuilt towards the end of the 12th century. A fire at Christmas 1521 destroyed Roger's building work thoroughly cooking their goose, so to speak... The castle lay derelict until that great restorer, Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke (1590-1676) began a three year restoration project. She had described Brough as "Going to ruin, more and more."
Despite the destruction there are still traces of plaster on the walls. Lady Anne started restorations in 1661 and in 1663 erected a plaque to say so. However after her death in 1676 her grandson started to demolish it and the castle was robbed of stone mercilessly for use at Appleby and elsewhere. Even Lady Anne's plaque was used in the building of a watermill at Brough.
At the rear of the castle the corner of the keep has collapsed at some point and two substantially huge lumps of masonry, one with the crenulations from the very top of the tower, can be seen in the moat. This is why you get warning signs at old castles - you would not want a chunk of masonry like this bouncing off your head... The best view of the castle is from the top of the slip road coming off the A66 westbound carriageway.
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