Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland (1837)
Bamburgh Castle stands above a vast expanse of beach on the coast of Northumberland. The keep and the colossal walls of the castle were built by the Normans. In Turner's day, restoration work had recently been carried out on the castle following its decline in the sixteenth century. Turner sketched this area in 1797 on an extensive tour of the north of England. A pencil drawing in a sketchbook from that tour shows a wrecked ship on the shore below the castle, possibly being dismantled and loaded onto a waiting cart. The area was a notoriously perilous part of the coastal route between Edinburgh and the south, used frequently by trade vessels. Turner's compulsion to show the destructive power of the sea meant that this spot provided a wealth of material to use in sketches and watercolours.

Three large watercolours of 1837 show Bamburgh Castle from the north, the seaward side. These studies enabled Turner to investigate the effects of light caused by the stormy conditions that prevailed there. His experience of this coastal area was not confined to the viewpoints from the beach; he also viewed it from the sea. Turner made the crossing to nearby Holy Island on the ferry-boat that sailed there from Bamburgh.