Joseph Mallord William Turner

Other views of Brancepeth Castle, south-west of Durham, are on folios 15 recto and 16 recto (D12335, D12336); for its history and general situation, see the entry for folio 15 recto. Between about 1818 and 1821, shortly after Turner’s visit, the castle was extensively remodelled for its owner Matthew Russell by the Scottish architect John Paterson, when a gatehouse with two massive round towers was built out from the north-east corner of the curtain wall,1 replacing the archway and flanking towers seen in this drawing. A distinctive medieval watchtower, projecting here from the northern corner of the machicolated curtain wall, still survives to the right of the entrance, with another beyond it to the south-west as summarily indicated by Turner.

The loose receding lines in the foreground indicate the track approaching the castle from the east, rather than the river that Finberg suggests. There is a sketch from further back on folio 75 verso (D12412).