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Berry Pomeroy Castle
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There are not many castles in Devon. One in Plympton, which is very much a dilapidated ruin and Berry Pomeroy Castle are the only two that immediately spring to mind. The former has very little to offer in the way of legend or paranormal, but Berry Pomeroy is a far different story. The castle itself has since become a ruin after being uninhabited for over a century.
The legend centres around two sisters of the Pomeroy family who lived in the famous castle during the middle ages, though many legends abound, no one has more credence than the other.
One version of the story tells of how one sister was wildly jealous of the other (possibly through competition over a suitor) and killed her sister / step-sister / sister-in-law through starvation by locking her in a dungeon for 19 years. This seems unlikely because the sister would need to have tremendous resilience to last that long – even by eating rats!
One story also tells of one sister bearing her own father’s child, which she killed. She is said to be the ghost that returns as a herald of death when another life is about to end.
One young doctor visited the castle to tend to the Steward’s wife who was given the all-clear. He claimed to have seen a distressed woman holding a baby while he was waiting to see his patient. The ghost seemed to contest the Doctor’s verdict and the Stewards wife died.
In 1960, the late Hamlyn Parsons wrote about an incident at the castle in which his dog went “almost mad with fear” every time they approached Lady Margaret’s Tower (another place that the ill-fated sister was supposedly imprisoned).
Berry also plays host to a wishing tree which is said (unlikely as it may sound) to be as old as the original castle itself. More realistic accounts state that this tree is a replacement of the original though an interesting legend surrounds this old Beech tree.
Legend has it that if you lean to whisper your wish to the tree and then walk backwards around it three times, provided that your wish remains a secret, it will be granted.