Warkworth's stone walls and Harry Hotspur

The book contrasts Warkworth's weak timber phase with the stronger stone defenses begun under Robert fitz Roger. During the Scottish incursion of 1174, local people reportedly trusted the church more than the wooden castle for protection. Roughly twenty years later, stone walls changed the site's defensive value. Warkworth subsequently became a Percy stronghold associated with Harry Hotspur and rebellion against Henry IV. His battlefield death, severed head displayed at York, and place in Shakespeare's plays carried the story into literary memory. The book adds a grey lady identified as Hotspur's mother, Margaret Neville, and a young ghost said to run along the walls looking for his head.