Berry Pomeroy Castle

OVERVIEW

The ruin of a late-fifteenth-century castle of the Pomeroy family with a great Elizabethan house built inside its walls by the Seymours, who bought it in 1547 and still own it; the family left for Wiltshire around 1700 and the house was roofless within a century. It stands in a steep wooded valley near Totnes, in the care of English Heritage, which notes the haunted reputation in its guide.

HISTORY

Excavations from 1980 to 1996 found nothing earlier than the late fifteenth century, overturning the belief that the Pomeroys had built here after the Conquest. The Seymours' unfinished north range was meant to rival any house in the county.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Two women: the White Lady, taken to be Margaret Pomeroy, imprisoned in the dungeon by a jealous sister, and the Blue Lady, who beckons from the tower and is said to lure the helpful to their deaths — a story recorded by the physician Sir Walter Farquhar in the eighteenth century, who attended a patient in the castle and saw the figure. The stories were told to the artists who came for the picturesque ruin in the 1800s and are told by the custodians now.

VISITING

English Heritage; seasonal opening, ticketed. A steep lane from the village; woodland walks around the ruin.