England · Still standing
Ford Castle
Ford Castle is a Grade I listed castle at a shallow crossing of the River Till in Ford, Northumberland. The site combines surviving medieval fabric with a large Tudor/Gothic mansion inserted within its curtain walls and retains crenellated parapets, towers and a formal forecourt. It is in active use today as a residential activity centre.
First raised
1338
Its prime
1862
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1862
What Ford Castle looked like in its prime.
A broad three-storey stone mansion set within older curtain walls, with crenellated parapets and square towers at the corners; ashlar and coursed sandstone render a warm pale-grey face. The central entrance front is symmetrical with a shallow projecting central bay, regular tall rectangular mullioned windows, and a low pitched roof behind battlements. A paved drive runs straight to the entrance across a wide grass forecourt; the site sits at a shallow crossing of the River Till.
Its story
The story of Ford Castle.
From Heron's Licence to Flodden, c. 1278–1513
Ford sits at a shallow crossing point on the River Till in Northumberland, and the castle there dates from about 1278. Its owner Sir William Heron was granted a licence to crenellate in 1338. The Scots captured Ford in 1385 and dismantled it.
It had been rebuilt and refortified by the beginning of the 16th century. James IV of Scotland took the castle in 1513, on the eve of the Battle of Flodden.
The Rough Wooing and the Heron–Carr Quarrel, 1549–1557
The castle left Heron hands in 1549, when the marriage of Elizabeth Heron to Thomas Carr of Etal carried it to the Carrs. In that same year, during the war with Scotland known as the Rough Wooing, the French soldier André de Montalembert besieged Ford.
The Herons disputed the Carr title and seized the castle for a time in March 1557. That August it was attacked by Lord James and Robert Stewart, sons of James V, together with Lord Home, who brought artillery and burnt farmhouses in the “ten towns of Glendale”.
Blakes, Delavals and the Gothic Hall, 1660s–1862
Castle and lands passed by marriage to Sir Francis Blake of Cogges, Oxfordshire, in the 1660s, and in 1694 Blake built a substantial mansion in Tudor style within the castle. On his death in 1717 the Ford estate went to the husband of his late daughter Mary, and in 1723 to her son Francis Blake Delaval.
In 1761 John Delaval, 1st Baron Delaval, rebuilt the Hall in a Gothic style with the architect George Raffield. On his death it passed to his granddaughter Susannah, who had married the Marquess of Waterford, and in 1862 Louisa, Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, widow of the 3rd Marquess, restored and substantially remodelled it again.
Coal Money to Activity Centre, 1907–2022
The coal-mining magnate James Joicey, 1st Baron Joicey, acquired the castle in 1907 and it stayed with his family; in 1956 it was leased to Northumberland County Council as a young persons' residential centre. It was listed Grade I in September 1951. Since 2022 it has belonged to PGL, which runs the site as an outdoor activity centre offering residential trips for schools, groups and young people.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1862.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Ford Castle, including 1 interior: the hall (gothic interior). 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 Ford Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1862, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Castle Siege
Play Castle Siege at Ford Castle.
A strategy game played on Ford Castle’s real ground plan: the same surveyed walls shown in the archive below. Post your finite garrison on the battlements between assaults, then hold out as rams, siege towers, trebuchets and sappers arrive in ever-worse waves.
Sign in free to see the garrison muster. One castle costs 150 Clan Coins and is yours forever.
Sign in to take command →Whose castle
Clans who held Ford Castle.
The families that held Ford Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Heron
Held by the Herons from the licence to crenellate of 1338 until 1549.
Carried to the Carrs of Etal by marriage in 1549.
Blake
Passed by marriage to Sir Francis Blake of Cogges in the 1660s.
Delaval
Held by the Delavals from 1723; the 1st Baron Delaval rebuilt the hall in Gothic style in 1761.
Joicey
Acquired by James Joicey, 1st Baron Joicey, in 1907; his family kept it, leasing it to the county council in 1956.
