REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1903 37 



This medisBval stronghold, where we find a combination of 

 natural and architectural beauty, enriched by 

 Structural historical interest, occupies picturesquely the 

 Features. North end of a basaltic ridge, which is washed 

 by the sea on the North and East, and cut 

 off toward the South and West by low, swampy, and 

 formerly tide-washed ground, which has been reclaimed by 

 drainage and embankments. It encloses a space, larger 

 than any of the other castles of Northumberland, which is 

 irregularly rectangular, and contains eleven acres, constituting 

 the Outer Bailey. The Inner Bailey was a very much smaller 

 enclosure, abutting on the North side of the great Gate-house, 

 while traces of a rough stone rampart to the South make it 

 probable that the whole rock may have been fortified in 

 pre-historic times. The chief fortress stands on the South or 

 most vulnerable side, and was used as a Gatdhouse. It consists 

 of an arched way with two storeys, flanked by two towers, 

 which, viewed from outside the building, have a semi-circular 

 appearance. Both ends of this way were at one time built 

 up with a view of converting the Gate-house into a donjon 

 or keep, in consequence of which a new chief entrance to the 

 Castle was devised about twenty yards along the curtain- 

 wall in a North-westerly direction, of which the site can be 

 distinctly traced by reason of the portcullis groove, which still 

 remains on the North side of the passage. In later days this 

 fell into disuse, giving place to the original Gate-house, whose 

 temporary walls to form the donjon were finally demolished. 

 The Southern curtain-wall is adorned with two small towers, 

 and a larger one known as Queen Margaret's, or Egginclough, 

 in which the heroic Queen of Henry VI. is said, though 

 upon no very reliable authority, to have taken refuge before 

 escaping in a fishing boat from the adjacent rocky cove, 

 which still bears her name. Very little of the building remains, 

 the Southern wall having nearly all fallen away ; but evidence 

 is not wanting in the handsome ashlars which compose the 

 basement, and the poorer masonry which characterises the 

 upper portions of the building, that "at sundry times" the 

 Castle assumed the proportions that still distinguish it. On 

 the West side the most remarkable feature is what is still 

 known as Lilburn Tower, standing on a steep hill and rising 



