Berry Pomeroy Castle. Berry Pomeroy. Devon.
FROM HAUNTED CASTLES OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND BY RICHARD JONES. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A SIGNED COPY
Berry Pomeroy Castle. Berry Pomeroy. Devon.
The ancient and powerful Pomeroy family arrived in Devon with the Norman Conquest, although the castle that bears their name dates only from the 15th century.
Legend holds
that, for their part in the religious rebellion of 1549, Edward V1 ordered
the seizure of their Castle. But w
hen troops arrived to enforce the order,
the two Pomeroy brothers who held it, donned their armour, blindfolded their
horses and spurred them over the ramparts, where they crashed to their
deaths at the feet of their astonished would-be captors.
The building was then acquired by the Kings Protector, Edward Seymour and, following his execution in 1552, became the abode of his son also called Edward. The family extended the buildings, adding a magnificent manor house. But when it was struck by lightning in 1685, they lost interest in it and by 1701 it had become a mouldering ruin.
Today the
rambling ruins of the once mighty fortress perch eerily on a rocky throne
above a wooded ravine, and several ghosts are said to wander inside its
crumbling walls. A blue lady haunts the hollow shell of its splendid
16th
century mansion house. She is said to be a daughter of the Pomeroy family
who, having become pregnant by her own father, smothered her baby the moment
it was born and is condemned to wander the ruins at night in eternal
remorse. But the eeriest part of this eeriest of ruins is located beneath
the 15th century Margaret Tower, reached by a twisting stone
staircase that spirals down into a dank, dark dungeon, where a feeling of
dreadful foreboding emanates from the moss-clad walls.
Here the wicked Eleanor Pomeroy imprisoned and starved to death her sister Margaret, because they both loved the same man and she was jealous of her siblings beauty. Margaret’s misty form appears in the depths of the tower and many visitors have felt the cold chill of her unseen presence as she brushes by them on the dimly lit stairwell that leads to her eternal prison cell.
FROM HAUNTED CASTLES OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND BY RICHARD JONES.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A SIGNED COPY
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