The Northumberland Castle Passport
A free printable passport for children: a cover to fill in, then a page for each part of the county with a stamp box, the name and one fact for every castle on our list. 39 castles on 8 A4 pages.
Set the printer to A4, portrait, at 100% scale. Castles you've ticked on this phone or computer print already stamped, with the date; untick the box for a blank passport. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Bairns & Beaches
My Northumberland Castle Passport
39 castles. How many can you collect?
This passport belongs to
Started on
Stamped so far: 0 of 39
How it works
- When you visit a castle, find it in this passport. They're sorted by area.
- Draw a stamp in the circle: a flag, a tower, a sword, or the gull that pinched your chips. A grown-up's signature counts too.
- Write the date and the best bit.
Castle ranks
- Castle spotter 1 castle
- Squire 3 castles
- Knight 8 castles
- Border Reiver 16 castles
- Keeper of the Keep 27 castles
- Warden of the Marches all 39 castles
bairnsandbeaches.co.uk/castles.html · Opening times change, so check each castle's page before you go.
Berwick and Holy Island
9 castles · 0 of 9 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Lindisfarne Castle
Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971) and Cold Feet
Holy Island
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Berwick Castle
Its great hall was knocked down to build Berwick railway station
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Berwick Ramparts
England's most complete bastioned town defences
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Duddo Tower
The Scots destroyed the first pele tower here in 1496, and the Clavering family built a new tower house in the late 16th century
Duddo
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Etal Castle
Captured by James IV in the days before the Battle of Flodden
Etal
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Norham Castle
JMW Turner's paintings of Norham Castle
Norham
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Ford Castle
Taken by James IV on the eve of Flodden
Ford
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Twizel Castle
A Georgian Gothic castle that was never finished
Twizel, near Cornhill-on-Tweed
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Wark Castle
The Order of the Garter legend
Wark on Tweed
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 2 of 8
Bamburgh and the north coast
3 castles · 0 of 3 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Bamburgh Castle
Bebbanburg in The Last Kingdom
Bamburgh
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Preston Tower
Honesty box entry and a Flodden room
Chathill
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
The Craster Arms, Beadnell
A village pub built into a pele tower
Beadnell
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 3 of 8
Alnwick and the Coquet coast
5 castles · 0 of 5 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Alnwick Castle
Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets
Alnwick
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Dunstanburgh Castle
Painted again and again by JMW Turner
Craster
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Warkworth Castle and Hermitage
Scenes in Shakespeare's Henry IV; the Hermitage chapel carved into the riverbank
Warkworth
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Edlingham Castle
The leaning solar tower
Edlingham
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Bondgate Tower
Also called the Hotspur Gate
Alnwick
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 4 of 8
Wooler, Rothbury and the Cheviots
4 castles · 0 of 4 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Chillingham Castle
Ghosts (the Blue Boy) and Most Haunted; also the film Elizabeth
Chillingham
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Harbottle Castle
Birthplace of Margaret Douglas, grandmother of James VI and I
Harbottle
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Tosson Tower
The ruins of a 15th century tower house in the hamlet of Great Tosson, below the Simonside hills near Rothbury
Great Tosson
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Woodhouses Bastle
A spout for pouring molten lead on raiders
Holystone
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 5 of 8
Kielder and the North Tyne
5 castles · 0 of 5 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Black Middens Bastle House
A Border Reiver bastle raided by the Armstrongs in 1583
Tarset
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Dally Castle
The remains of a medieval hall beside the Chirdon Burn, about 1.5 miles south-west of Tarset
Near Tarset
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Chipchase Castle
A 14th century pele tower joined to a Jacobean mansion
Near Wark on Tyne
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Elsdon Tower
A fortified vicarage recorded in 1415
Elsdon
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Kielder Castle
The Duke of Northumberland's hunting lodge at the heart of Kielder Forest
Kielder
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 6 of 8
Hexham and Hadrian's Wall
8 castles · 0 of 8 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Aydon Castle
One of England's least altered fortified medieval manor houses
Corbridge
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Prudhoe Castle
Holding out against two Scottish sieges in 1173 and 1174
Prudhoe
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Staward Peel
A ruined pele hidden in the Allen Banks woods
Allen Banks, near Haydon Bridge
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Thirlwall Castle
Built with stone robbed from Hadrian's Wall
Greenhead
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Dilston Castle
Home of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater, executed in 1716
Dilston, near Corbridge
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Langley Castle
A tower with 12 medieval garderobes
Langley on Tyne
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Haughton Castle
A 13th century tower house on the west bank of the North Tyne, enlarged and fortified in the 14th century and ruined by the 1500s
Humshaugh
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Vicar's Pele, Corbridge
One of Northumberland's three fortified vicarages
Corbridge
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 7 of 8
Morpeth and the south east
5 castles · 0 of 5 stamped
Stamp hereStamped
Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens
The quarry garden walk from a Greek Revival hall to a medieval castle
Belsay
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Cresswell Pele Tower
The legend of the White Lady
Cresswell
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Morpeth Castle
Holding out in a Civil War siege in 1644
Morpeth
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Bothal Castle
Sir Robert Bertram got permission in 1343 to turn his manor house into a castle with a gatehouse
Bothal
Date
Best bit
Stamp hereStamped
Mitford Castle
A five-sided keep
Mitford
Date
Best bit
Bairns & Beaches Castle Passport · page 8 of 8
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