DEFENSIVE HOME OF THE MIDDLETONS
Posting this shot from yesterday's visit to Belsay Hall in Northumberland and after exploring the delights of the quarry Garden, it was the ruins of Belsay Castle next, looking stunning in the late summer sunshine.
The 14th-century medieval castle is a Scheduled Monument and a Grade I listed building.
It began life during troubled times in the English/Scottish borders, around 1370 as a rectangular 'pele tower' with turrets and battlements and home to the Middleton family.
In later years Thomas Middleton added on a manor house in 1614.
Further alterations were added and demolished with the castle finally abandoned as a family residence early in the 19th century when owner Sir Charles Monck built a new residence, Belsay Hall, close by.
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