BERRY POMEROY CASTLE

Devon

The most spectacular of the three Castles inland from Torquay (the others being Totnes and Compton), Berry Pomeroy dates to around 1450 when Henry Pomeroy owned the land here. The great Gatehouse dates from this period and is a peculiar juxtaposition of styles, being angular and square and yet following the format of Gatehouses such as Tonbridge which are almost exclusively rounded.

There was once much more of Berry Pomeroy Castle, but much was destroyed when the Tudor house (right in the picture) was started in 1547 by Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector of Edward VI who had been sold the property by Sir Thomas Pomeroy.  Seymour was executed in 1552 and his son, also Edward, completed the work.  By 1700 the Castle was in decline.

Berry Pomeroy is perhaps most famous today as being the most haunted Castle in Britain (save for the Tower of London).  Amongst its many ghosts are two well-documented female ghosts. One is that of a pale, beautiful young woman who appears shortly before the death of one of the occupying family (who presumably does not appear these days as the castle is owned by English Heritage) she may be the same ghost as that of the murderous woman who killed her own children and who lures the unsuspecting to the ramparts of the castle and then shoves them off into the precipice below; the other ghost, and the most famous, is supposedly the ghost of Lady Eleanor de Pomeroy who was starved to death in the dungeons and haunts the castle ramparts, beckoning to all who see her.

There are also tales of another lady, hooded in blue who haunts the castle who was raped by her father who then strangled the subsequent child (some tales say that she strangled the child herself); there is the usual ghostly dog; strange lights and shadows; and then there are the knights who rode their horses over the ravine into the river who are also said to haunt the castle and the gorge below it – they are supposedly Pomeroys who, fearing the castle would be taken from them, blindfolded their horses and rode to their deaths rather than surrender their property.

Many a visitor has described a weird feeling at Berry Pomeroy Castle...so if you visit beware...and definitely, definitely, don't follow any strange but beautiful women to the ramparts!

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2018