William de Mohun built a timber motte-and-bailey castle at Dunster around 1086, on an earlier Anglo-Saxon burgh. Stone fortifications, probably a shell keep, followed in the early 12th century. Sir Hugh Luttrell built the Great Gatehouse and barbican between 1419 and 1424. The castle stands on a hill about 200 feet (60 m) high.
George Luttrell built a manor house in 1617 to designs by William Arnold. The Parliamentarians slighted the medieval walls in 1650. Anthony Salvin remodeled the castle in a Victorian Gothic and Picturesque style from 1868 to 1872. It is built of red sandstone from the hill.
The Luttrell family owned the castle from 1376 until Sir Walter Luttrell gave it to the National Trust in 1976. The castle and gatehouse are Grade I listed.
Comments