The New Murrey and Blue blog

Otterburn Castle is in glorious Northumberland, see here, and dates back to the time of William the Bastard….er, Conqueror. All you need is £3 million.

My quirky sense of humour had a turn when I read “The days of arrows shot from battlements and boiling oil poured over the walls are long gone, however….” Of course they have, we can’t afford the oil these days! 😄

“….The first record of Otterburn was in 1076 when Robert D’Umphraville – William’s cousin – was given the land in appreciation of his services….” No one knows what he built there, and the first definite information concerns a pele tower mentioned in a 1308 survey and which was thought to have been around 60 years old at that time. This tower gets a mention in Froissart in his account of the battle of Otterburn in 1388, when the English army suffered a bloody defeat at the hands of the Scottish, led by the Earl of Douglas who tried to take the tower. You can read about pele/peel towers here.

This tower, known as Otterburn Tower, developed into what is now the castle/hotel. In the 15^th century it was used as a hunting lodge,  and according to Wikipedia at the beginning of that century the tower was held by Sir Robert Umfraville.

The property hasn’t been a home since before World War II, but has been an 18-room hotel since 1940. If you’d like to read and see more of this outstanding property, here are the estate agent details.