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Berry Pomeroy Castle, near Totness
This castle is reputed to be one of the most haunted in the British Isles. A White Lady appears in the vicinity of the dungeons and upon the castle ramparts. She has been identified with the ghost of Lady Margaret Pomeroy who died of starvation while imprisoned in the dungeons of St Margaret's Tower. Her sister is said to have incarcerated her because of a love rivalry. Her sighting is associated with a death portent.

The castle is also haunted by a Blue Lady who is tries to send people over the edge of the castle walls and into unsafe areas by luring them towards her. Said to be the spirit of the daughter of an early Norman lord, who raped her and then strangled her to death. She gave birth to a child from this event, and in other stories she (or her father) kills the child and then haunts the castle in her anguish.

The castle was home to the Pomeroy family for centuries after the Norman conquest. One story suggests that two brothers (Pomeroys) were besieged within the castle. To save face from a long drawn out defeat, they dressed in full armour, mounted their horses and rode off the top of the castle ramparts into the precipice below. The area was known thereafter as the Pomeroy's leap and is associated with anomalous noises such as screams and dull thuds.

The lands became forfeit in 1549 when Thomas Pomeroy took part in a religious rebellion. The castle passed to Sir Edward Seymour, who built a mansion within the walls of the Norman castle.

The castle was a ruin by the early nineteenth century.
Click Berry Pomeroy Castle for a more in depth view.
Map ref: SX 839 623
Directions: The castle is off the A 385 two and a half miles from Totnes.