Drumburgh Castle

Drumburgh Castle is a tower house, now a farmhouse, dating back to the 13th century. A licence to crenellate, meaning to add battlements, was granted to Robert le Brun on 24th August 1307. The castle was altered in 1518, as evidenced by the initials and coat of arms of Thomas Lord Dacre above the entrance, and subsequently between 1678 and 1681 for John Aglionby, with further additions in the 19th century.

The castle is constructed of extremely thick walls of squared and coursed red sandstone, quarried from the nearby Roman Wall, set on a chamfered plinth. It has a parapet above the entrance featuring carved stone eagle finials and a steeply pitched graduated greenslate roof with coped gables and brick chimney stacks. The building originally had three storeys, but now appears as five bays over three storeys, with a single-storey, single-bay extension to the left. A 19th-century gabled brick porch with a Welsh slate roof sits to the right, and a blocked round-headed window from the 13th century is also present. The original 13th-century round-headed entrance is blocked and partially concealed by 16th or 17th-century external stone steps leading to the first floor.

The main entrance, dated 1517, features an iron-studded oak plank door, possibly original, set within a pointed-arched and chamfered surround with a carved stone panel displaying arms above. The door has a later internal lock dated and inscribed J.L. 1681. Sash windows with glazing bars are set into enlarged 16th-century openings on the ground and first floors. A continuous row of blocked slit vents sits above the windows. Second-floor 16th-century two-light stone-mullioned windows have been fitted with Yorkshire sashes where the mullions have been removed. Blocked windows are situated slightly above and between these windows. The rear wall has similar windows and blocked window openings.

In the late 1970s, the right-hand end wall, which was structurally unsound, was taken down and rebuilt to a facsimile, incorporating a broad central buttress and a corbelled-out battlemented parapet, potentially representing the remnants of medieval crenellation. The interior floor levels were altered in the 16th and 17th centuries, and many original features are concealed by later plasterwork. A 17th-century wood-panelled room is found on the first floor. The interior of the rebuilt end wall is constructed of breeze blocks and is open from floor to roof. The roof comprises king-post trusses, which may date back to the 16th century. An extension to the left is built with Roman Wall stone and cobbles, and has a greenslate roof with plank doors and slatted openings.