Uncover a family home that has always moved with the times, a Jacobean gem lovingly revived and updated by the Victorians. The two styles meet in perfect harmony in the Castle's beautifully decorated show rooms.
Whet your appetite with these five highlights from the Castle:
A warm welcome
© NTPL / Bill Batten
Ornate plasterwork ceilings, wood panelling, period furniture and paintings, and a magnificent fireplace greet your first steps into the Castle. The Inner and Outer Halls were sympathetically remodelled in homage to the original Jacobean house by the architect Anthony Salvin in the 1870s.
Salvin did find a few Jacobean treasures left to play with for his grand re-design. Look out for the Luttrell coats of arms, dated 1589, over the Inner Hall's fireplace, and warm yourself on crisp spring and autumn days when a welcoming fire often burns in the grate.
Here you can also find out what a wapiti is (clue - you can see it in the photograph) and discover how the magnificent brass fire dogs got their name.
Dining in style
© NTPL / Bill Batten
Fine dining has always been on the menu at Dunster Castle. In recent years, both the King of Norway and the Earl of Wessex have dined beneath the Dining Room's sumptuous plasterwork ceiling dating from 1681.
The ceiling has all the richness of the finest plasterwork from this time. Not surprisingly it takes 72 painstaking hours to clean during the winter, usually in one hour sessions.
The Dining Room and its servery were originally a ‘great parlour’ and withdrawing room, before Anthony Salvin transformed them in the 1870s.
Making a splash
© NTPL / Nadia Mackenzie
If the words 'That’s a big bath' escape your lips when you enter the East Quantoxhead Bathroom, you're not the first. This is one of the most popular comments made by visitors on catching sight of the very spacious cast iron bath that resides here.
They’re right too - the bath would need about 100 gallons (463l) to completely fill it, more than twice the capacity of a normal tub. The Bathroom dates from the 19th century and is reputed to be the earliest in Somerset.
Dare you enter?
© NTPL / Bill Batten
The King Charles Bedroom is said to be the most haunted room in the Castle, no mean boast for a house reputed to be the haunt of many ghosts. The faint hearted need not venture in, but there is a mysterious secret passage to be discovered if you're brave enough.
The Bedroom takes its name from the future Charles II, who as Prince of Wales, slept here in 1645, when trying to raise support for the Royalist cause in the West Country. The warming pan inscribed with 'God Save King Charles' was made for his visit.
On cue
© NTPL / Nadia Mackenzie
No Victorian country house was complete without a billiard room. Following the best fashion of the day, Anthony Salvin created the Billiard Room at Dunster out of what had once been the kitchen. You can still see the huge fireplace arch that he left intact.
The billiard table and its accessories were the work of Burroughs & Watts Ltd, the top Victorian maker of billiard tables. Ivory was used to make the balls in those days, and this is the room to find out how many balls you can get from an elephant’s tusk and other facts about the game of billiards.
|
