Dunster Castle was built in Norman times, and originally owned by the de Mohuns. It suffered from devastation under Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII’s reforms in 1650 and was remodelled by the Luttrell family in the mid-nineteenth century.
It commands a wooded hill in Exmoor, with wonderful views across to the Bristol Channel, and contains gorgeous terraced gardens, a working watermill and a Victorian underground reservoir.
Victorian kitchen
Inside the castle, the untouched Victorian kitchen features a rare original Victorian kitchen table. One half is a normal, wooden table, but the other side is metal. Underneath, a series of steam pipes used to heat the metal top as a griddle.
How many kitchen maids suffered nasty burns from touching the unprotected surface, as they fried eggs and bacon for a household of forty people?
A complete set of working servants’ bells still hang outside the Victorian kitchen.
Speaking tube
In the butler’s pantry, by the upstairs kitchen, a speaking tube that once allowed the butler to speak to kitchen staff, downstairs in the servants’ quarters, and a dumbwaiter lift moves up and down between floors.
The speaking tube plays a vital role in Murder at the Castle.
Ghosts
A man in green walks mysteriously through the stable block, now a shop, and pushes items off the shelves. Footsteps and voices are heard at night, marching feet climb the hill, and a woman once reported seeing a robed figure at the foot of her bed. Ghost tours are available, for brave visitors to the castle.
