Like Turner's view of Warkworth Castle (cat.no. 90), some twenty miles north along the north-eastern coast from Bamburgh, Nesfield's work takes a low viewpoint to emphasise the towering mass of the building. Nesfield's choice of mood, however, is rougher and bleaker; the waves smash against the rocks of that dangerous coastline, battering the fishing boat in the sudden storm, and creating alarm among the onlookers on the desolate beach. As with sunrise and sunset in landscape, it is difficult to determine whether the storm has just begun, or is nearing its end; perhaps the darkly heavy pall of cloud and wind which move from the right to obscure the sun (the direction is indicated by the flag on the castle tower) means this is the onset of the tempest.