Regular readers of my blogs will know that there’s nothing I enjoy more than visiting castle ruins with my camera. Brougham Castle on the edge of the lovely old Cumbrian town of Penrith was a new one for me.

Mid 19th Centuary Broome Bridge (currently closed and awaiting repairs) and the River Eamont make a lovely rustic setting for a view of the castle. I shot it from the nearby A66. Shame about the electricity wires, which are a spoiler for many nice landscape photos.

Inside the ruins.

Exploring the ruins was great fun and a challenge for myself to find the best internal view. The 172 year-old graffiti inside the castle walls fascinated me and not the most obvoius subject for a photo!

Ancient grafitti!

Cheeky gargoyles.

This pair of cheeky gargoyles high up on the four storey Tower Of League stretched my compact camera’s 20X zoom capability.

Castle Window

Windows are always good to frame your main subject assuming of course there is something worth framing. The ruined tower made  good subject matter for me and shot on an angle makes it more three-dimensional and adds a touch of direction. Several shots of just a bit of landscape through a window weren’t quite as interesting.

The light contrast was too great in this window view to preserve any outside detail, but I liked the ‘glowing crucifix’ effect created accidentally.

Light effect

I hope you have enjoyed my brief snapshot of Brougham Castle. If you go, make sure you climb the rather hidden (and rather dark) spiral staircase four floors up to the top of the tower. It gives a rewarding view all round. As castle ruins go, this is one well worth exploring in my opinion and despite being an English Heritage site, isn’t ‘over enthusiastically priced’!

More Photographer’s Ramblings soon!