Stogursey Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

South of the village of Stogursey, in a low-lying meadow between the Quantock Hills and the Bristol Channel, a water-filled moat encircles a circular platform crowned with stretches of medieval curtain wall. Above the access bridge stands a small thatched cottage, created in the 17th century within the shell of the two towers that flanked the gate. The whole forms one of the most picturesque castle sites in west Somerset. A Norman fortress of the powerful de Courcys, the castle was in the 13th century a stake in the struggles between the Crown and the barons, then the administrative residence of the FitzPaynes and of the Earls of Northumberland. Ruined by the end of the Middle Ages, it then served as a farm before being rescued by the Landmark Trust, which acquired it in 1981, dredged the moat and restored the gatehouse cottage. Today the cottage is let for short stays and accommodates up to four people, who have the ruins and the moat to themselves. The monument is scheduled (Scheduled Monument) and the house is listed Grade II*; visits to the ruins are reserved for those staying in the holiday cottage.