Built in the 1540s as a defence against border raids by the Scots, Lindisfarne lost its military importance after the unification of England and Scotland under James I. It was in ruins by 1901 when Edward Hudson, founder and proprietor of the magazine County Life, came across it whilst holidaying in Northumberland. Hudson fell in love with the castle; he bought it in January 1902 and immediately commissioned Edwin Lutyens to restore it as a summer retreat. Lutyens emphasised the gaunt, sheer severity of the building and its organic relationship with the crag from which it emerges. Inside, he transformed the formerly derelict blockhouses into an intricate labyrinth of reception rooms and bedrooms, reached by stone ramps, twisting passageways and narrow stairs growing out of solid rock. The result was romantic, but enormously uncomfortable. As Lytton Strachey observed, after a week’s stay, Lindisfarne was ‘very dark, with nowhere to sit, and nothing but stone under, over and round you, which produced a distressing effect…. No, not a comfortable place by any means.’
A collection of mostly continental furniture, including several unique oak pieces specially designed by Lutyens for the house, a large collection of pewter and metal work including many copper pieces by W.Benson, a 19th century model ship hanging from the ceiling, and a striking painted panel with the defeat of the Spanish Armada as its subject (Macdonald Gill, 1913) with a still-working wind indicator at its centre.
