Photo gallery

© NTPL / Magnus Rew

It’s impossible to miss the rosy-red turrets and towers of Dunster Castle. The Castle rests high on the Tor at Dunster, with a bird's-eye view of the coast and Exmoor below. The Castle’s fortified look is now purely a façade to the beautifully furnished and decorated rooms inside - tastefully re-modelled in Victorian times. Yet a thousand years back, the sea lapped at the bottom of the Tor and a hill-fort on top guarded against raiding Celts and Vikings. Dunster is definitely a castle with a past.

© NTPL / Charlie Waite

The gateway is the oldest remaining part of Dunster Castle. It dates from the 13th century, a time when the Castle was as much a fortress as a home and often at risk of attack. The wooden gate with its strengthening iron bars is original.

A story handed down over generations tells of the discovery of a 7ft man's skeleton in the gateway during Victorian excavations. He was found manacled to the wall of the medieval dungeon wing, which once lay under the round tower on the right of the gate. It might be just a tall tale, but was this man brought crashing down here by 'giant killers'?

© English Heritage

Two's company, and three's definitely a crowd, in one sheltered spot of the garden at Dunster. The Mill Walk, which follows the bubbling River Avill, brings you to the secluded Lovers Bridge. It was designed with purely two people in mind, as you'll find out if you try its snugly-fitting seat.

© National Trust

Shiver me timbers! Events for all ages and tastes take place at Dunster Castle throughout the year. Ghost Tours, Bat Walks and Pirate Family Fun Days are just a few of the regular events on offer. To round off the year in style, you can join the Castle's gardeners as they deck the halls with traditional Christmas garlands and wreaths.

© NTPL / Fay Godwin

Before the motor car, horses carried almost every load up the steep drives to the Castle. They also carried the Luttrells over their huge estates and on the hunting and polo fields. The family loved their animals, as the quality of these 17th-century stable stalls, which have survived almost four centuries of hard use, shows. The stalls now share the stables with a roost of Lesser Horseshoe bats.

© NTPL / Bill Batten

The Castle inside has a very different feel to the imposing fortress you see from the outside. At Dunster the grandeur of a castle effortlessly combines with the interiors of a country house, as this image of the Drawing Room shows.

In the late 19th century, the Luttrell family took tea here every afternoon at 5pm. They would also receive local gentry paying social calls in this room. Alys Luttrell, the last member of the family to live at Dunster, revived it as a formal drawing room in 1935.

© NTPL / Bill Batten

You can learn what life would have been like for the 15 staff that worked and lived in the Castle by 1881 by booking on one of our Attic & Basement Tours. You'll see parts of the Castle not normally open to the public, including the Victorian Kitchen (above), and gain a fascinating insight into the life of a Victorian servant.

The tours take place on most Thursdays between April and October. You can find details of forthcoming tours by looking at our online events listing.

© Michael Cooper

Historic Dunster village nestles underneath the Castle, only a five minute walk from the grounds.

Find out more about this fascinating medieval village and what you can see and do there on the Visit Dunster website.