In 1894 Lord Armstrong, aged 84, bought the castle. It was run down and needed a lot of work, which Armstrong set about with gusto. Saving all the medieval stone work and removing much of the modern work.

His idea was to create at ‘convalescent home for gentleman who had fallen on hard times’. Somewhere they could live and eat cheaply but with comfort.

He died soon before the work was complete and his nephew, William Watson, inherited his estate and became Watson-Armstrong. William built a convalescent home in the village and turned the castle into private living quarters, both for himself and apartments to let out

Fast forwards a few decades,m to the 80s, the castle is expensive to run and keep standing and so is opened to the public, as well as been kept as the family home and having a further 12 let apartments.

And it remains the same today. Visitors keep the castle standing, and in turn the castle is there for all to enjoy. Still a home too. Privately owned and funded (expect from a couple of much needed covid grants this year!)

There’s 30 people employed at the castle. Some part time guides. Managers of different sections of the business. 2 stonemason/builders and 2 grounds/maintenance.

We try to strike the family business feel, as you would get on the farm and hopefully the team would feel that we get that right most the time.

Covids been a challenge, 4 months trading out of 12. No weddings. No holiday cottage income. Maintenance of the building and the chattels cant slow down so outgoings remain high. However we had a good summer last year when we could open and have

Been supported by the govs covid grant and loan schemes. So we’ve survived, are open again properly on the 17th may (grounds only atm) and we’ve got some really exciting projects in the pipeline.

This thread has (again) gone away from food and farming. So here’s me and dad with some Bamburgh beer that we had made for the gift shop. Brewed, of course, by using malting barley and hops