Craster

Craster Tower is an 18th-century Georgian mansion incorporating a 14th-century pele tower situated near the fishing village of Craster, Northumberland, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Craster radar station (also known as RAF Craster), was a Chain Home Low (later a Chain Home Extra Low) Second World War radar site at Craster in Northumberland, England. The radar site is north of the village of Craster on an escarpment overlooking the North Sea. The site was opened by early 1942 and was staffed initially by the British Army, but later came under the control of No. 73 Wing of the Royal Air Force, part of No. 60 Group. It closed in 1944 and was later used as a PoW camp.

The Howick house is a Mesolithic site located in Northumberland, England. It was found when an amateur archaeologist noticed flint tools eroding out of a sandy cliff face near the village of Howick. Investigations found a circle of substantial post holes with charcoal stains in their bases, a number of smaller stake holes, some angled in from outside a hollow, and inside the house a number of shallow hearths filled with charcoal, burnt nutshells and some fragments of bone. Radiocarbon dating of the charred hazelnut shells established that the building was constructed about 7600 BC and occupied for about 100 years, which led to the find being called "Britain's oldest house". This title was disputed in 2010 when the discovery of the even older 'house-structure' at Star Carr in North Yorkshire was announced. Some of the hearths showed signs only of nut roasting, and the numbers of shells suggested that food was cooked here in quantity, perhaps to preserve it for times of scarcity. Together with the very substantial construction shown by the size of post holes, this led to the view that the house was occupied permanently rather than being used on a transient or seasonal basis as expected during the Mesolithic period. Charred hazelnut shells have been found at several other sites from this period, including Cramond, but their smaller stake holes were interpreted as remains of a temporary encampment. The interpretation that this was a permanent residence for hunter-gatherers is supported by analysis that Howick is a place where natural resources would have allowed all-year-round occupation. Its coastal position provided animals, flint for tools, wood for construction and fuel, fish, seals, sea birds and their eggs, shellfish and a nearby source of fresh water that was available at the time of occupation. Many sites from this time are coastal, but the particular circumstances found here and the evidence of ceremonial ritual from the site at Star Carr in Yorkshire, only 100 miles away, are interpreted as indicating that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were capable of establishing permanent settlements.

Dunstanburgh Castle is a 14th-century fortification on the coast of Northumberland in northern England, between the villages of Craster and Embleton. The castle was built by Earl Thomas of Lancaster between 1313 and 1322, taking advantage of the site's natural defences and the existing earthworks of an Iron Age fort. Thomas was a leader of a baronial faction opposed to King Edward II, and probably intended Dunstanburgh to act as a secure refuge, should the political situation in southern England deteriorate. The castle also served as a statement of the earl's wealth and influence and would have invited comparisons with the neighbouring royal castle of Bamburgh. Thomas probably only visited his new castle once, before being captured at the Battle of Boroughbridge as he attempted to flee royal forces for the safety of Dunstanburgh. Thomas was executed, and the castle became the property of the Crown before passing into the Duchy of Lancaster. Dunstanburgh's defences were expanded in the 1380s by John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, in the light of the threat from Scotland and the peasant uprisings of 1381. The castle was maintained in the 15th century by the Crown, and formed a strategic northern stronghold in the region during the Wars of the Roses, changing hands between the rival Lancastrian and Yorkist factions several times. The fortress never recovered from the sieges of these campaigns, and by the 16th century the Warden of the Scottish Marches described it as having fallen into "wonderfull great decaye". As the Scottish border became more stable, the military utility of the castle steadily diminished, and King James I finally sold the property off into private ownership in 1604. The Grey family owned it for several centuries; increasingly ruinous, it became a popular subject for artists, including Thomas Girtin and J. M. W. Turner, and formed the basis for a poem by Matthew Lewis in 1808. The castle's ownership changed during the 19th and 20th centuries; by the 1920s its owner Sir Arthur Sutherland could no longer afford to maintain Dunstanburgh, and he placed it under the guardianship of the state in 1930. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, measures were taken to defend the Northumberland coastline from a potential German invasion. The castle was used as an observation post and the site was refortified with trenches, barbed wire, pill boxes and a minefield. In the 21st century, the castle is owned by the National Trust and run by English Heritage. The ruins are protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and are part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, forming an important natural environment for birds and amphibians. Dunstanburgh Castle was built in the centre of a designed medieval landscape, surrounded by three artificial lakes called meres covering a total of 4.25 hectares (10.5 acres). The curtain walls enclose 9.96 acres (4.03 ha), making it the largest castle in Northumberland. The most prominent part of the castle is the Great Gatehouse, a massive three-storey fortification, considered by historians Alastair Oswald and Jeremy Ashbee to be "one of the most imposing structures in any English castle". Multiple rectangular towers protect the walls, including the Lilburn Tower, which looks out towards Bamburgh Castle, and the Egyncleugh Tower, positioned above Queen Margaret's Cove. Three internal complexes of buildings, now ruined, supported the earl's household, the castle constable's household, and the running of the surrounding estates. A harbour was built to the southeast of the castle, of which only a stone quay survives.

Howick ( HOH-ik) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Longhoughton, in Northumberland, England, between Boulmer and Craster. It is just inland from the North Sea, into which Howick Burn flows from Howick Hall. In 1951 the parish had a population of 246.

HMS G11 was a G-class submarine of the Royal Navy in service during the First World War. One of six of her class built by Vickers at Barrow in Furness, she was launched on 22 February 1916, and commissioned on 13 May 1916.

Howick Hall, a Grade II* listed building in the village of Howick, Northumberland, England, is the ancestral seat of the Earls Grey. It was the home of the Prime Minister Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), after whom Earl Grey tea is named. Howick Hall is the location of the Howick Hall Gardens & Arboretum.

St Michael and All Angels Church is a Church of England parish church located within the grounds of the gardens of Howick Hall in the village of Howick, Northumberland, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, receiving around twenty thousand visitors annually.

Embleton Bay is a bay on the North Sea, located to the east of the village of Embleton, Northumberland, England. It lies just to the south of Newton-by-the-Sea and north of Craster. Popular for paddling, it is overlooked by the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle and by Dunstanburgh Castle Golf Club.

Longhoughton is a small rural village in Northumberland, England. It lies near the coast, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northeast of Alnwick, in the similarly named parish of Longhoughton. The village lies under the spectacular whinstone outcrop, Ratcheugh Crag, near which local point-to-point racing is often conducted. Longhoughton church does double-duty as the church of the nearby RAF Boulmer.

Embleton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northumberland. Besides the village of Embleton itself, the civil parish includes the settlement of Christon Bank, situated about a mile to the west. Embleton village has a main street with one shop. There is a small green with the village pump on it, out of use now but at one time the source of the water supply. The village is about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from Embleton Bay. The sandy beach is backed by dunes where a variety of flowers bloom: bluebells, cowslips, burnet roses and bloody cranesbill, amongst others. Also near the beach is Embleton's 18-hole Dunstanburgh Castle Golf Course which opened in 1900 and was updated in 1922.Christon Bank lies on the East Coast Main Line railway, and until 1965 was the site of a station. Beyond the bounds of the parish, Dunstanburgh Castle stands at the southern end of Embleton Bay. Close by, to the south, is the fishing village of Craster.

The Church of the Holy Trinity is located in Embleton, Northumberland, England. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is west of the village. Built in the form of a cross, it consists of a two aisle nave, a clerestory, a chancel, a porch, and a chantry chapel. It has a tower with a small vestry, and a gallery. The vicarage house and garden are on a gradual slope on the south side of the churchyard. Traces of stonework show evidence of an earlier church from the 12th century. It is a Grade I listed building.