Battling Against the Elements

- English Heritage combats Dunstanburgh's erosion -

 An English Heritage project to replace some of the badly weathered stonework in the walls of Dunstanburgh Castle will enable visitors to imagine how it looked when it was one of the most formidable fortresses in the North.

Perched high on a cliff, and only reached today by a 20-minute trek across a rocky beach from the village of Craster, Dunstanburgh Castle has stood on the wild and windswept Northumberland coast for more than 700 years, its sandstone walls battered by saltwater and cruel North Sea winds.

Centuries of weathering have taken their toll on many of the huge blocks of stone that went into the construction of the castle’s outer walls, added by John of Gaunt at the end of the 14th Century as part of substantial alterations.

Ray Stockdale, English Heritage's manager of works in the North East said: "The degree of erosion depends very much on the direction the stone faces; out of the prevailing wind, much of the stonework has stood the test of time. But on the more exposed areas, some of the weathering is so bad, certain stones have been "hollowed out" from underneath so while the front face of the block looks intact it is actually hollow and you can reach behind and put your hand into the void."

Work is now underway to replace a small section of Dunstanburgh’s mighty walls with brand new stone, not to reconstruct the ancient work, but to replace some of the architectural features that the first masons would have carved so visitors are able to appreciate the original design and quality of their work.

Ray said: "At the base of the south wall there was a stepped and champhered plinth layer running the entire length of the wall; this detail is almost completely lost now, so we have replaced stonework here to give some idea of the intentions of the original builders."

 New stone has been brought down from Brownieside near Berwick, chosen as a close match in colour and density to the original sandstone.

And 19-year-old stonemason’s apprentice Tony Wilkinson of Stanley, County Durham is learning at first hand the traditional skills of cutting, dressing and fitting the stone in much the same way as the young masons did all those centuries ago. Tony has been an apprentice for just over a year to stonemason David France, who is working in partnership with specialist company St Astier of Seaham in County Durham to carry out the repairs.

Dunstanburgh Castle is owned by the National Trust and maintained and managed by English Heritage.