Qualla: Dunster Castle https://qualla.com/dunster-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:20 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dunster Castle https://qualla.com/dunster-castle Dunster Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/dunster-castle/ Photo credit Martin Bodman, CC BY-SA 2.0. Only two families have ever owned Dunster Castle. The de Mohuns held it from 1066 until 1376, when Joan de Mohun -- childless, widowed, and deep in debt -- sold it to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell for 5,000 marks. The Luttrells then occupied the property for the next six centuries, through civil wars, bankruptcies, Victorian renovations, and crippling death duties, until Colonel Sir Walter Luttrell finally handed it to the National Trust in 1976. That continuity of ownership gives Dunster something unusual among English castles: the feeling of a home that kept adapting rather than a ruin that stopped.

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Image: Martin Bodman | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/gcje-dunster-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dunster Castle: The Tor Above the Sea https://qualla.com/dunster-castle/ Photo credit Franzfoto, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dunster sits on a steep, 200-foot hill called the Tor in the Somerset village from which it takes its name. In the early medieval period, the sea reached the base of the hill, making the village an inland port and the castle a guard post against seaborne raiders. An Anglo-Saxon b...

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Image: Franzfoto | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/gcje-dunster-castle-the-tor-above-the-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Dunster Castle: The Sale That Changed Everything https://qualla.com/dunster-castle/ Photo credit Richard Baker, CC BY-SA 2.0. A 1266 survey of the castle describes the Upper Ward as containing a hall, buttery, pantry, kitchen, bakehouse, the chapel of Saint Stephen, and a knight's hall, guarded by three towers. The Lower Ward held a granary, two towers, and a gatehouse; one tower, the Fleming Tower, ser...

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Image: Richard Baker | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/gcje-dunster-castle-the-sale-that-changed-everything.mp3 0:06 3 full Dunster Castle: Civil War and the 300 Workmen https://qualla.com/dunster-castle/ Photo credit David Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the English Civil War broke out in 1642, Thomas Luttrell supported Parliament. His wife Jane repulsed a Royalist assault on the castle, but when the war turned in the King's favour in 1643, Thomas switched sides. By 1645, the Royalist cause had collapsed, and Colonel Robert ...

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Image: David Smith | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/gcje-dunster-castle-civil-war-and-the-300-workmen.mp3 0:06 4 full Dunster Castle: A Polar Bear in the Parlour https://qualla.com/dunster-castle/ Photo credit Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 3.0. The most dramatic transformation came in the 1860s, when architect Anthony Salvin -- fresh from his work at Alnwick Castle -- remodelled Dunster to suit Victorian tastes. Salvin built new towers, inserted windows in multiple historical styles to create an appearance of organic gr...

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Image: Geof Sheppard | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/e/dunster-castle-wp/gcje-dunster-castle-a-polar-bear-in-the-parlour.mp3 0:06 5 full