Delightfully enough, this terracotta-red sandstone Welsh castle, with its high, crenellated walls, huge moat and crumbling, ivy-draped ancient outer walls was once home to an axe-murdering wife, who slaughtered her husband’s mistress in a fit of jealous rage. That’s not the only grisly and intriguing altercation that’s taken place here since the iron age, when the peak of the ridge upon which the castle now stands was first used as a defensive fort. An Arthurian legend of violence and adultery, links with the mean old Sherriff of Nottingham who eventually defeated Robin Hood, tales of horror from the Civil War and dangerous Edwardian romances linger within this tangle of frequently altered and expanded walls, so you might say that the presence of a spectral soldier, echoing voices, ghostly footsteps, inexplicable drops in temperature and other poltergeist activity are hardly surprising.

Once you’re done exploring the narrow corridors, spiral staircases, dungeons, Whipping Pit and Drowing Pool, and you’ve eaten at award-winning Bertie’s Dining Room, you might take a wander through the acres of well-kept gardens and parkland, and maybe along the riverside woodland path at dusk, and perhaps you’ll glance back at the castle and see the Grey Lady roaming the battlements! The best place to recover is definitely the library – oak panelled and stuffed with Chesterfield sofas and a well-stocked bar.

There’s also a spa and a gym, and if you book in advance you can have a costumed medieval banquet or even a medieval-themed wedding.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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