Heaton Castle (remains of)

En un regard

Le château en bref

South of the Tweed, in the parish of Cornhill-on-Tweed, the hamlet of Castle Heaton preserves the memory of an important border castle of medieval Northumberland. Today only fragments remain, absorbed into the buildings of a farm: buttresses, probable remains of a turret and of a rampart, and above all a long two-storey vaulted building, listed Grade II*. The castle was built in the 14th century by the Grey family, who had acquired the estate from the Hetons, tenants of the Bishop of Durham. Written sources describe a quadrangular enclosure with a great tower called the Lion's Tower, corner turrets and an entrance to the south. Located on one of the invasion corridors between Scotland and England, it was ravaged by the troops of James IV in 1496 and again in 1513, and was never really rebuilt. The vaulted building, about 21 metres long, intrigues researchers: a survey of 1570 that houses "a hundred horses" in it, 16th-17th-century alterations and 19th-century windows. Excavations carried out in 2014 and 2015 confirmed the presence of reused medieval stones. The site, part of a working farm, is not presented as open to visitors.