Blenkinsopp Castle

Blenkinsopp Castle is a part ruined mansion house incorporating the ruins of a tower house dating back perhaps to the 14th century. It sits within the grounds of Blenkinsopp Castle Country Park, which is a gated residential park home development, but the castle itself is operated as a hotel offering accommodation and rooms. It was built on the southern slopes of the Tipalt Burn, which flows into the South Tyne just west of Haltwhistle.

The lands were held by a family who took their name from them, and it would appear that a tower house was founded here early in the reign of King Edward III by Thomas de Blenkinsop, and this was referred to in 1415 vas a castle and fortalice. Thomas de Blenkinsopp appears to have been followed by his namesake son, under who the family fortune reached its heights, and who served as constable of Brough Castle (1380-90), Roxburgh Castle (1381-83) and Carlisle Castle (1384). He appears to have died in the hands of the Scots after his capture in 1388, and was followed by his own namesake son. In 1488 the castle was committed to the custody of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, the family having presumably ceased to occupy it in favour of Bellister Castle to the south. By 1541 it was in a state of disrepair, the roof having fallen.

The castle at the time consisted of a modest square courtyard with a hall on one side, surrounded by a lower curtain wall and ditch with an external upcast bank, presumably what had fallen was the roof of the hall complex on the western side. When cross-border warfare technically ceased in 1603, there was no further military need to maintain such a utilitarian building, and the already dilapidated castle fell into ruin. In 1833, a smaller square castellated house was added to the outside of the east wall, presumably incorporating much of the older masonry, and a poor house established in 1801 stood abandoned on the site of the hall. The buildings were substantially remodelled in 1880 to form a new mansion for William Lisle Coulson Blenkinsop, which was gutted by fire in 1954. Today the west wing of the mansion is maintained part as a private home, part as an inn, and the eastern part of the building remains a ruin, stabilised with financial support from English Heritage, and therefore obligated to be accessible to the public.

Blenkinsopp Castle Country Inn website