Bamburgh Research Project
Anyone driving up the A1 between Newcastle and Edinburgh can hardly fail to notice the distinctive silhouette of Bamburgh Castle brooding over the Northumberland coastline. It has inspired poets and artists, film-makers, and the founders of a new religion, Christianity. It has lured invaders from Scandinavia and Northern Europe. In over two thousand years it has not lost its romantic appeal. The drama of its presence is fortified by its continuous occupation, which endures into the twenty first century, as, unlike other castles, Bamburgh is not a ruin.
When you walk through the medieval Barbican you are presented with a castle that has been shaped into its present form by restorations in the 18th century by Lord Nathaniel Crewe, Bishop of Durham, and at the end of the 19th century by the famous industrialist Lord William Armstrong. Crewe's restoration saw the addition of a windmill and the castle was used as a school, a dispensary and a hospital and maintained a coastguard service, a lifeboat and a welfare centre for shipwrecked mariners. The school and estate was run by Dr. Sharp, whose carriage can be seen in the castle today. Armstrong remodelled the castle as a stately home, joining the buildings of the inner ward with the 13th century Keep, rebuilding many of the walls and creating modern access roads. Much of the medieval stonework survives incorporated into the restorations, but the real grandeur of Bamburgh is under the soil.
Digging at Bamburgh There are few sites that can claim to have such a long and interesting history as Bamburgh castle. It is more akin to an urban excavation with over 3 metres of deeply stratified deposits that demonstrate occupation evidence at least as far back as the Bronze Age and perhaps into the Neolithic.
Field School Bamburgh Research Project field school is run by professional field archaeologists who have worked for many years in commercial archaeology. One of the goals of the project was to encourage and train future generations of archaeologists and heritage professionals. If you've never been on a dig before or if you're an old hand, Bamburgh can offer an experience that will be memorable and life enhancing. Our staff and project leaders are in the trenches with students each day, as the best way to learn archaeological processes is to observe and discuss them as they are encountered on site. Learning to see features in the soil and interpret them and to recognise their spatial and stratigraphic relationships is something that only experience can teach, so we involve students in discussion and observation of the site, filling in context sheets and adding to site matrices.
We explain the stratigraphy and recording systems and students are taught how to do all aspects of drawing on site, site photography, surveying, environmental sampling, finds processing, data processing and even media. The project runs its own media department that all students can participate in, filming the archaeology and social history and editing films from the extensive video archive. We have evening lectures on the history of Northumbria and archaeological processes and site tours in and around the castle and local area.
The landscape around Bamburgh is truly stunning, with a beautiful beach and the opportunity to explore the Farne Islands, including Lindisfarne, Holy Island which is just a few miles up the coast. Students and volunteers come from all over the world to dig with us and we try to make each season a fulfilling experience for all. We have a great social life off site and provide organised entertainment in the form of quiz night and BBQ's as well as everybody's weekly highlight PUB NIGHT!
Our field school this year is open from June 8th to 26th July and costs £150 per week which covers tuition and travel to site, breakfast and packed lunch plus at least two BBQ evenings. The campsite where we stay offers accommodation booked through us at £5 per night, bring your own tent. The campsite has full showers and facilities including shop, bar, café, swimming pool, self catering area, internet access, telephones. Alternatively there are many other accommodation providers in the area from hotels to B&B or self catering. Check out our website to apply.
Bamburgh Castle. Photo by Bamburgh Research Project
Comments
Fun stuff! Let’s see a field school report on some paleolithic era stuff! More arrowheads please!
Ed. Read my profile here: Arrowheads