Berry Pomeroy Castle

Most haunted castle in England? The Berry Pomeroy Castle.

Hidden away in the small village of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, England, it is the ruined shell of a great Elizabethian mansion.

Some history.

When the Pomeroy family began to build Berry Pomeroy Castle in the later 15th century, they had already owned the manor of ‘Berri’ for over 400 years. It had originally been granted by William the Conqueror to 

Ralf de Pomaria, a Norman knight from La Pommeraye near Falaise. 

Exactly when the castle was begun remains uncertain. It first appears in the records when Sir Richard Pomeroy died in 1496 as owner of the ‘honour, castle and manor of Bury’.

In December 1547, Berry Pomeroy was bought from the impoverished Sir Thomas Pomeroy by the wealthy and powerful Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (c 1500–1552). Seymour was the brother of Henry VIII’s third and favorite queen, Jane Seymour, and in 1547 became ‘Lord Protector’ of his nine-year-old nephew, King Edward VI, and thus effectively ruler of England.

Yeah, but is it haunted?

According to Haunted Devon it is.

• A woman in a long blue cape has been seen around a particular archway and is said to be a Pomeroy daughter who murdered her own illegitimate child.

• Photographs have been taken in the area by separate tourists who later discovered the figure of a man in a tricorn hat and a lady in dark clothes who weren’t apparent when the photos were taken. 

• The Castle also boasts its very own “White Lady” who appears in the castle dungeons and upon the ramparts. It is said she is yet another of the unfortunate Pomeroy daughters, who was placed in the dungeons by her jealous sister and left there to starve slowly to death. 

Regardless of the the possible ghosts, I want to visit.