Castle of the Week 20 - Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle overlooks the small village of Dunster on the
edge of Exmoor in south-west England. It is unusual in that
it has only changed hands twice since the Norman conquest of
1066 – the Mohuns until 1376 and the Luttrells from
then until 1976 when it was taken over by the National Trust
and opened to the public. Originally it stood close to the
Bristol Channel, but the sea has slowly receded and
it’s now several miles away.
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The wooded hill it stands on is natural and made the perfect site for William de Mohun to build his castle. The wall round the outer bailey was built on a ledge halfway down; below that the hill was very steep and formed a perfect defence. The initial keep and walls were of wood, but as there was much natural red sandstone in the area it was soon rebuilt.
The most famous of the Mohun family was the 3rd William de
Mohun who was a supporter of Empress Matilda in her civil war
against Stephen He was known as the Scourge of the West
because of his reckless plundering and burning. He built the
stone shell keep on top of the hill and the earliest stone
walls.
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In 1376 the male line of the family died out and Lady
Elizabeth Luttrell, daughter of the Earl of Devon bought it.
The current gatehouse was built by her, well outside the
lower ward as an additional defence and joined up to it by
walls. It’s an imposing 3 storey building without the
usual portcullis. The other side of the gatehouse is a
smaller inner gateway probably dating back to the 13th
century and the oldest surviving structure in the castle.
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The residential buildings in the lower ward are mostly Elizabethan, built in the late 16th century to replace those that had been in the shell keep and in 1617 a new house was built within the bailey incorporating part of the wall.
During the Civil War in 1642, the castle was seized and held
by a Royalist garrison. In 1646 it was besieged and was
battered with guns in the village below. The Governor
surrendered and, although it was on a list of castles to be
destroyed, nothing seems to have been done about this. The
Parliamentarian troops were stationed there for five years,
then the castle was returned to the Luttrells after payment
of a fine.
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During the following years, the owners made the castle more comfortable rather than restoring its military strength. They built a large carriage drive, covering many of the medieval foundations. Windows were cut into the old towers and the shell keep was removed and replaced by a bowling green.
In the 19th century the architect Salvin built two large
castellated towers and another in the centre of the south
wall and reconstructed the front in the Gothic revival style.
He also modernised much of the interior, but left the 17th
century carved oak staircase and oak-panelled dining-room.
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A huge Victorian conservatory at the back leads on to a sheltered terrace where many semi-tropical plants grow. The gardens now stretch down the hill to a stream, the Avill and a deer park.
At the bottom of the hill is the Mill. There was a mill there
at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086 although the
current mill dates back to the 18th century. It’s a
working mill, producing wholemeal flour for local bakeries.
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Write-up and images provided by GillB*
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