The history of Chillingham

Edward I lodged here before fighting William Wallace

Chillingham Castle is a medieval fortress in Northumberland, now run as a historic house museum. It began as a monastery in the late 1100s, before becoming a fortified stronghold on the border between England and Scotland. In 1298, Edward I stopped here on his march north to fight William Wallace. A glazed window, rare for the time, was built specially for the king's comfort.

The war left darker marks. Local accounts describe a torturer named John Sage, appointed under Edward I, who tortured and killed Scottish prisoners at Chillingham during the hunt for Wallace. The stories say thousands died here, with bodies dumped into the castle's lake. At the war's end, adult prisoners were said to have been burned alive in the grounds while children watched, and the children were killed afterward. These numbers come from retellings rather than official records.

In 1344, King Edward III granted Sir Thomas Heton a license to crenellate, meaning he could legally add battlements and towers. This turned Chillingham from a manor into a true quadrangular castle, with walls up to 12 feet thick and a moat ringing the site. For two more centuries it stood as a staging post for English armies heading into Scotland, and a target for Scottish raiders heading south.

Rebellion damage forced the rebuilding of its towers

In 1536, the castle suffered damage during the unrest of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion against King Henry VIII's religious reforms. Historians credit the attack with forcing the rebuilding of some of its towers. Other accounts tell of eight members of the Grey and Bennet families, who owned Chillingham for centuries, executed for treason, their heads displayed on city gates as a warning to others. As peace settled between England and Scotland after 1603, the castle's military purpose faded. Its moat was filled in, and its battlements became living quarters.

Two earls of Tankerville died inside the castle

King James I stayed at Chillingham in 1617, traveling between his two kingdoms after England and Scotland joined under one crown. Its moat was filled, its battlements turned into rooms, and a banquet hall and library were built there.

Life at Chillingham settled into something quieter, though not always happy. In the 1600s, the Grey family passed the castle by marriage to the Earls of Tankerville. Two of them died here. Charles Bennet, 6th Earl of Tankerville died at the castle in 1899, aged 89. George Bennet, 7th Earl of Tankerville died here in 1931, of a gastric hemorrhage, aged 79. George Bennet was cremated and buried at Chillingham.

Visitors and staff over the centuries told of a boy's skeleton found walled up inside the castle, wrapped in scraps of blue cloth. His finger bones were said to be broken, worn down as though he had clawed at the wall. The story that grew around the find says he had discovered documents about the Spanish Armada's planned invasion in 1588, and was bricked in alive to keep him quiet. He became known as the Blue Boy, and was said to haunt the Pink Room.

Soldiers burned the castle's woodwork for firewood

After the 7th Earl's death in 1931, the castle emptied out. Its contents were sold at auction the following year. Left unoccupied, Chillingham began to fall apart. During the Second World War, soldiers were billeted inside and are said to have stripped out and burned much of the decorative woodwork for firewood. Lead was taken from the roof, and rain did the rest. By the time the last Earl of Tankerville inherited in 1980, the estate had been broken up and sold off.

Wakefield restored the ruin bought in 1982

In 1982, Sir Humphry Wakefield bought the ruined castle. Wakefield's wife Katherine was a descendant of the original Grey family. Wakefield spent years on a painstaking restoration, room by room, repairing the damage left by war and decades of neglect.

The castle found a new audience. In 1997, it stood in for Leith Castle in the film Elizabeth, and the fiberglass fireplaces built for the shoot still sit in the Great Hall, covering marble fireplaces salvaged from a demolished London mansion. Today Chillingham markets itself as the most haunted castle in Britain, with ghost tours running through its old chambers and dungeons after dark. Sections of the castle are open to the public, and parts of it operate as holiday apartments.

Outside, a 600-acre walled park holds the Chillingham wild cattle, a rare breed of white cattle that has grazed this land since a park wall went up in 1220. The herd still fights among itself; a park manager watched one bull kill another here in April 2023.