Lambton Castle, located in Washington, Tyne and Wear in the north east of England, is the ancestral home of the Lambton family, Earls of Durham. Largely constructed in its present form by John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and one-time Governor of Canada in the early 1800s, it was designed by architects Joseph Bonomi the Elder and his son Ignatius and built in the style of a Norman castle and overlooks the wooded Wear Valley. It was paid for with coal mining wealth accumulated from the mines which ran below the castle.
Much of the house, including the great hall, was demolished due to subsidence in the 1930s, ironically caused by the same mines from which Lambton wealth had grown. Also at this time, the contents were sold to pay death duties and the family moved to a smaller house on the estate.
Today, the castle stands empty, but continues to be maintained and remains the ancestral home of the Lambton family.
For a time in the 1960s and 1970s, the castle's grounds were home to Lambton Lion Park .
Penshaw Monument, an Ancient Greek-style memorial to the first Earl, is located on Penshaw Hill on theLambton Estate , which surrounds the castle. This was also the resting place of the mythical Lambton Worm, as depicted in the famous North East folk song.