Bours Castle

Bours Castle, locally known as Château or Donjon de Bours, lies in the village with the same name, in the Pas-de-Calais department in France.

Bours Castle was most likely built in the 12th century by Hugues de Bours. Originally it would have had a bailey defended by a crenelated wall guarding several outbuildings. Both the bailey and the castle would have been moated. At present all traces of the bailey are gone.

Bours Castle is a keep built out of sandstone and has a rectangular plan with six corbeled turrets. It has walls of 70 cm thick and 2 floors. It is generally assumed that during the mid-13th century the keep would have been higher.

During the first half of the 15th century the castle was owned by Maillotins de Bours who restored and enlarged the castle but probably did not change the keep.

In 1543 Bours Castle was burned down.

At the beginning of the 20th century there was talk of demolishing the keep but luckily that did not happen. During the second half of the 20th century the keep was restored several times and used as a town hall.

This is a nice tower built before the invention of gunpowder. It was the seat of a landlord and protected him against possible looters. It would not have withstood a siege with artillery.

A very nice castle in a quiet rural village. The keep can be visited but was closed when I came by.

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