Alnwick Castle: Beauty and Defense

  This week we have been learning about various aspects of siege warfare. Wednesday we focused on the construction and defense of various castles. Intrigued by this discussion I found one castle that is still in use today, has been used in in films, and contains many of the architectural structures we discussed on Wednesday.
  Alnwick Castle is located in Northumberland, England where it was built in 1096 (1). The castle was actually built strictly for defense purposes not at the request of a king or nobleman for a summer home. The castle's main purpose was to defend England's border from any Scottish invaders (1). The luck of the castle's defenses withstanding invasions from the Scottish however was bleak. In 1172 and 1174 the castle was captured by William the Lion, King of Scotland (1). The castle also played a part during the War of the Roses, its last battle to have served as a fortress (1). Today the castle is used by different educational groups, various films have been set in and around it, and is open to the public to tour.
  Here are some images of the Alnwick Castle:

As you can see this castle shares many of the same architectural features that we discussed on Wednesday. First, the majority of the towers are circular. Second, the tops of the castle's walls have the jagged pattern allowing for easy defense for those on top of the walls during battle. The third feature, and most interesting is that the castle is actually made up of two main rings of buildings (2). Do you think this was simply for defense purposes or simply a fad of the architecture style during this era? Or perhaps both? 

  While the castle is no longer used for defenses it has been used as a set for some well-known films including, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, three Harry Potter films, and the new Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe from a few years ago (3). 

 So while the castle was originally built for defense purposes, it is still a beautiful work of art that is still in use today by various institutions. For one, its just plain cool to have castles still standing from the 11th century but also it is interesting to see that the castles haven't become abandoned buildings but are instead incorporated into pop culture through the lens of film and television shows.

Works Cited

"Alnwick Castle." 2010. Accessed October 2, 2014. http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/page.php?key=Alnwick%20Castle.