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Visit Dunster and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:
Dunster, Somerset. Its castle tops classically a wooded pyramid-shaped hill. Dunster is in appearance medieval and feudal, and has many attractive and interesting ancient buildings.
The castle was founded in 1070 and has been continuously inhabited ever since; from 1375 by the Luttrell family. It is often open in the summer. It is mainly 16th- to l9th-century and has many splendid features, in particular a magnificently carved staircase (1681), each panel from a solid block of elm, a 1681 plaster ceiling in the dining-room, and a remarkable set of 17th-century Spanish or Portuguese painted leather panels. During the Civil War the Luttrells were for Parliament, but the Royalists took the castle and it was their last stronghold to fall in Somerset, after a siege of five and a half months (1646).
The yarn-market in the centre of the High Street was built in c. 1589 when the town was an important cloth centre. The Luttrell Arms was originally a house of the Abbot of Cleeve and still has medieval parts, including the porch. The extraordinary, slate-hung building on the sharp corner at the south end of the High Street may have been a guest-house for the priory which, from the 12th to the 16th century, existed just North of the church which it shared with the laity. The 15th-century church is much the finest in this area, with magnificent wide waggon roof (c. 1500), equally good flat roof to the south aisle (c. 1450) and a rood-screen claimed to be the longest in England. Of the monuments, one to Elizabeth Luttrell (1493) at the east end of the south aisle is worth noting. The north door leads into an exquisite walled garden, once the Prior's. At the far end is the dovecot and a medieval tithe barn.
An attractive street, more modest than the High Street, runs South West from the church. The first turning South off it leads to an old mill, the second to a packhorse bridge over the River Avill and thatched cottages.
The conspicuous tower on the hill to the North was built in c. 1770 for landscaping purposes. A nice, quite short, walk for a view is to Grabbist Hill to the West.
Nearby towns: Lynmouth, Minehead, Watchet
Nearby villages: Bicknoller, Bossington, Bratton, Brompton Ralph, Brompton Regis, Carhampton, Clatworthy, Combe Florey, Crowcombe, Culbone, Cutcombe, Dulverton, East Quantoxhead, Elworthy, Exford, Exton, Fitzhead, Hawkridge, Luccombe, Luxborough, Porlock, Selworthy, St. Decumans, Stogumber, Timberscombe, Tolland, Treborough, Upton, Washford, West Myne, West Quantoxhead, Williton, Winsford, Withycombe, Withypool, Wiveliscombe
Have you decided to visit Dunster or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:
- a Dunster bed and breakfast (a Dunster B&B or Dunster b and b)
- a Dunster guesthouse
- a Dunster hotel (or motel)
- a Dunster self-catering establishment, or
- other Dunster accommodation
Accommodation in Dunster:
Find availability in a Dunster bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.