The site now occupied by
Bamburgh Castle was previously home to a fort of the
Celtic Britons known as
Din Guarie and may have been the capital of the kingdom of
Bernicia, the realm of the
Gododdin people, from the realm's foundation in c. 420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year, the
citadel was captured by the
Anglo-Saxon ruler
Ida of Bernicia (Beornice) and became Ida's seat. The Anglo-Saxons called the place
Bebbanburh, meaning "Queen Bebba's stronghold"; this was later corrupted into the modern "Bamburgh".
Aidan of Lindisfarne came to this area from the monastery of Iona in 635 on behalf of King
Oswald of Northumbria. Following the defeat of Northumbrian forces by the Viking
Great Heathen Army, at York in 867, the Kingdom of Northumbria disintegrated. Southern Northumbria became the Viking-ruled
Kingdom of York, while north remained under Anglo-Saxon control under the
high reeves of Bamburgh. The territory finally became part of the
Kingdom of England in 954. The late medieval village began to develop near the castle. During the
dissolution of the monasteries the property of the friars, including the castle, was seized on behalf of
Henry VIII. Late medieval British author
Thomas Malory identified Bamburgh Castle with
Joyous Gard, the mythical castle home of
Sir Lancelot in
Arthurian legend.
Lionel Lukin's first purpose-built
lifeboat was stationed here in 1786. The
Royal National Lifeboat Institution re-established
a lifeboat station here in 1882 but it closed in 1897. ==St Aidan's Church==