The ghosts of Berry Pomeroy Castle

Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon has more than its fair share of ghosts to alarm the unwary visitor!

Berry Pomeroy is a village in South Devon, England, not far from the town of Totnes. The Pomeroys were a Norman family that “came over with the Conqueror” in 1066 and were granted lands in the area. However the castle was not built until the late 15th century. It was sold in 1547 to Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and his son built a completely new four-storey manor house within the curtain wall of the original castle. This manor house was later abandoned by his descendants and fell into ruin.

Stories of hauntings have been told for hundreds of years and seem to be associated mainly with the original owners, the Pomeroys.

The White Lady is believed to be the ghost of Margaret Pomeroy. She haunts the dungeons, where it is said that she was imprisoned by her sister Eleanor. Margaret was the more beautiful of the sisters and had no trouble in attracting men. Eleanor’s jealousy reached such a pitch that she threw her sister into the dungeon where she slowly starved to death.

The Blue Lady roams the whole castle and has the nasty habit of beckoning people to follow her to her tower. The legend says that should anyone be taken in by this trick they will meet their death by falling from the top of the tower.

The Blue Lady is supposed to date from an earlier period than the White Lady and to have been the daughter of one of the early Pomeroys from Norman times. However, this seems unlikely as it has been proved by archaeology that, although they owned the land, the first Pomeroys did not build anything on this site.

The story goes that the Blue Lady was raped by her father who then strangled the baby that she bore, although another version states that it was she who killed the baby. Whichever version is true (assuming that either of them is!) a sight of the Blue Lady is supposed to be a harbinger of death, and not necessarily by falling from her tower.

A 19th century doctor is supposed to have seen the Blue Lady during a visit to the castle to treat the wife of a steward. Although she seemed to be making a full recovery, she died soon after the doctor had left. The viewing of the ghost sounds rather like a convenient excuse for administering the wrong drugs and causing the death of one’s patient!

Just for good measure, Berry Pomeroy Castle also boasts a Grey Lady, a cavalier, and strange shadows that have nothing solid to cast them.