Ground Floor
As originally designed the ground floor contained two distinct and unconnected sections: the chapel and what is now called the ‘garrison room’.
The chapel lies below the main entrance stairway. In the middle ages it could only be entered from the outside through a small door to the left of the stairs. The chapel consists of a small nave set at right angles to the chancel, and was partly restored by John Dobson in 1848. It is now entered from within the keep by a doorway cut through the medieval masonry.
The ‘garrison room’, which was probably used for storage, could only be entered from the floor above by the spiral stair. The present outside door near the foot of the stair is a post-medieval alteration, dating from the period when the ‘garrison room’ was used as a prison for the county of Northumberland. The massive single door to the ‘garrison room’ has a small wicket gate let into it. Within the room, the central pillar has the remains of a projecting lead pipe. This was part of the medieval plumbing system by which water could be delivered from the well room. [More about the ground floor...]