England · Still standing
Drumburgh Castle
Drumburgh Castle is a Grade I-listed medieval pele tower in the village of Drumburgh, Cumbria. The site originated as a 14th-century pele tower built on Hadrian's Wall, was rebuilt in 1518 and altered in 1678–1681 to its present form, and retains an external first-floor doorway and stair bearing the Dacre coat of arms with reused Roman stonework in the masonry.
Its prime
1681
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1681
What Drumburgh Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact, rectangular multi-storey pele tower of warm red sandstone with a slightly taller, crenellated corner tower attached to a two-storey pitched-roof house block; roof covered in slate with several tall brick chimneys. The east-facing façade is reached by an external stone stair rising to a first-floor doorway carved with a heraldic shield. Masonry includes irregular blocks and visibly reused Roman stones set into lower courses. The castle sits directly beside a narrow village lane with a low stone forecourt wall and iron gate.
Its story
The story of Drumburgh Castle.
Robert le Brun's Tower and the Red Sandstone of the Wall
The site already carried a tower before the medieval builders arrived: one that had formed part of Hadrian's Wall. Robert le Brun put up a pele tower over it in 1307, near the village of Burgh, and his masons did not look far for material — the tower was built of red sandstone taken from the Wall itself.
That reuse is still legible in the fabric. Parts of a Roman shrine are incorporated into the stonework, carried out of the frontier works and set into a tower raised on the line of the Wall.
Dacre's House of Strength and the Alglionby Remodelling
Thomas Dacre rebuilt the castle in 1518, and contemporaries called the result "neither castle nor tower but a house of strength". John Alglionby altered it again between 1678 and 1681, and that work gave the building its present form.
The external first-floor doorway and staircase, decorated with the Dacre coat of arms, are a later addition rather than original fabric — the family's mark set on a house that had already been rebuilt more than once. Drumburgh has been listed Grade I since 11 April 1967.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1681.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Drumburgh Castle, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Drumburgh Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1681, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Drumburgh Castle.
The families that held Drumburgh Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Dacre
Rebuilt by Thomas Dacre in 1518; the Dacre coat of arms still marks the first-floor doorway and stair.
