About
Berry Pomeroy Castle is one of the most romantic and reputedly haunted castle ruins in England, hidden in a deep wooded combe south of Totnes in the South Hams of Devon. The castle presents a unique double narrative: it is simultaneously a medieval fortification and an Elizabethan mansion, the two phases of building existing in remarkable juxtaposition within the same walls.
The medieval castle was built by the de la Pomerai family after the Norman Conquest, and the impressive gatehouse, curtain walls, and towers that form the outer circuit of the fortification date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
In the sixteenth century, following the purchase of the estate by the powerful Seymour family — relatives of Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour — the new owners began a programme of ambitious rebuilding, constructing within the medieval walls an extravagant three-storey Elizabethan mansion that rivalled the greatest houses of the age.
This mansion, built to display the wealth and aspirations of the Seymours rather than for military necessity, was never completed: the cost of construction, combined with the family's declining fortunes in the seventeenth century, led to the abandonment of the project, and both the medieval castle and the partly-built mansion fell into ruin together.
The result is an extraordinary ruin of layered complexity — medieval gatehouses and towers framing the skeletal façade of an unfinished Renaissance palace — set in dense deciduous woodland above a stream, with an atmosphere of melancholy grandeur that has made it famous for ghost stories.
English Heritage manages Berry Pomeroy as one of the most atmospheric castle ruins in England, where the combination of architectural layers, woodland setting, and colourful legend creates a visit that is unlike any other.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- This is a site to linger in — the woodland, the ruined mansion facade, and the atmospheric towers reward slow exploration far more than a quick circuit.
- Pick up the audio guide (included with admission) and guidebook from the shop: the complex building history needs explanation to be fully appreciated.
- Bring a picnic — there are no food facilities on site and the woodland grounds are perfect for outdoor eating.
- Visit in bluebells season (late April–May) for the most beautiful approach through carpets of flowers beneath the trees.
- The ghost legends are best appreciated by reading about them in advance — the English Heritage guidebook covers the tradition thoughtfully.
- Wear sturdy footwear: the woodland approach and castle grounds are uneven and can be muddy.
- Dogs are welcome on leads — many visitors combine Berry Pomeroy with a Devon countryside walk.
- Combine with Totnes Castle (4 km) for a Devon double: Norman shell keep in the morning, Elizabethan ruins in the afternoon.
Highlights
The Medieval Gatehouse and Curtain Walls
Berry Pomeroy's medieval defensive circuit — the massive gatehouse with its twin drum towers, the curtain wall with its projecting angle towers, and the wall-walk that connected them — survives in remarkable completeness and provides the outer frame within which the later Seymour mansion was built. The gatehouse is particularly impressive: its twin cylindrical towers flank a deep gate passage with the remains of portcullis grooves visible in the masonry, and the walls rise to a height that still conveys formidable defensive strength.
Walking through the gate passage and entering the courtyard beyond gives the classic castle experience of transition from exterior threat to interior security.
The contrast between this robustly military entrance and the elegant Elizabethan windows of the mansion façade visible ahead across the courtyard is one of Berry Pomeroy's most striking visual effects — five hundred years of English architectural history contained within a single view.
The Seymour Mansion — An Unfinished Tudor Palace
Within the medieval walls, the soaring three-storey façade of the Seymour mansion rises in spectacular ruin against the sky. Begun in the mid-sixteenth century after the Seymour family purchased Berry Pomeroy from the de la Pomerais, this ambitious building project aimed to create within the medieval shell a fashionable Renaissance palace appropriate to one of England's most powerful families.
The mansion's façade, facing the castle courtyard, is a sophisticated composition in the latest Elizabethan architectural style: large mullioned windows in two upper storeys above a loggia at ground level, with decorative details reflecting continental Renaissance influence.
The sheer scale of the ambition is evident: this was not a modest addition but a full-scale great house intended to surpass its neighbours in grandeur. Construction was halted — possibly due to financial pressure, possibly due to the decline in the Seymour family's political fortunes following the Civil War — and the mansion was never completed or fully occupied.
Its ruin within the ruined medieval castle creates a double tragedy that gives Berry Pomeroy much of its powerful atmosphere.
The Ghosts of Berry Pomeroy — England's Most Haunted Castle
Berry Pomeroy Castle has a reputation as the most haunted castle in England, a distinction it has held since at least the eighteenth century when ghost sightings were first recorded here. The two most famous ghosts associated with the castle are the White Lady, said to be the spirit of Margaret de Pomerai, imprisoned in the dungeon by her father and left to die; and the Blue Lady, believed to be the ghost of a Seymour who murdered her illegitimate child and now lurks in the upper towers.
These legends, however romantic, are a relatively recent overlay on the castle's history, but they reflect a genuine eeriness that the site possesses: the deep woodland setting, the dramatic ruin, the damp stone, and the sense of abandonment all contribute to an atmosphere that many visitors find genuinely unsettling.
English Heritage engages thoughtfully with the ghost tradition, neither dismissing it nor promoting it uncritically, and the audio guide provides context for the legends alongside the factual history. Ghost tours are occasionally organised here, making Berry Pomeroy particularly popular with visitors seeking a different kind of heritage experience.
The St Margaret's Tower and Wall-Walk
Among the surviving medieval towers, St Margaret's Tower at the north-west corner of the curtain wall is one of the most complete, retaining its internal floors in part and offering access to the wall-walk that ran along the top of the curtain wall connecting the towers. Climbing to the wall-walk gives views over the surrounding woodland and down into the castle courtyard from above, providing a new perspective on the complex of medieval walls and the Elizabethan mansion below.
The tower's interior spaces are dark and atmospheric, retaining their original arrow-slits and the traces of the timber floors that once made them functional fighting platforms.
The wall-walk itself — narrow, with original stonework underfoot — gives a vivid physical sense of a medieval soldier's daily patrol, looking out over the tree-tops for any threat approaching through the valley below.
Collections
Berry Pomeroy Castle is an open-air heritage site with no conventional museum collections. English Heritage provides an audio guide (included with admission) and interpretation panels throughout the site. The castle guidebook provides comprehensive coverage of the building history, ghost legends, and archaeological investigation. Artefacts from excavations are held by English Heritage.
Medieval Castle and Tudor Palace
Audio guide and interpretation covering the de la Pomerai medieval castle, the Seymour mansion, the ghost traditions, and the archaeological history of the site.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.