Langley Castle stands about two miles south of Haydon Bridge on the A686 road to Alston. It is at least 600 years old and is now run as a hotel. Langley’s history pre-dates the tower by some 200 years. It is known to have been the centre of a barony granted by King Henry II to Adam de Tindale for one knight’s fee or one mark, sometime between 1157 and 1165.
Work started on construction in 1350 for Sir Thomas De Lucy, and his family to protect during times of war with the Scots, and was completed in 1364.
Over the years the castle passed through the hands of various high profile families, such as the Percy family - who inherited it by marriage and had to give it back to the De lucy family; the Radclyffe family - during which time two Earls of Derwentwater, the brothers James and Charles, were executed for their active Jacobite roles in the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions.
In 1882, local historian and former High Sheriff of Northumberland Cadwallader Bates bought the Castle and commenced its restoration, which was finally completed in 1905 under the management of his wife Josephine, and it remained a private residence of their family until her death in 1932.
During the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, it was a war barracks, and a girls school, and held medieval banquets in the 1980s.
Purchased in 1986 by Dr Stuart Madnick, the Castle was converted into an eight-bedroom hotel, and it has seen various additions and transformations ever since.