Berkeley Castle

Ancient, beautiful and steeped in history, Berkeley Castle has featured in Shakespeare, been the scene of the murder of an English King, been battered and breached by Cromwell, and seen a butcher's daughter marry the 5th Earl. The castle itself is a beautiful, romantic and haunting building built of pinkish sandstone and grey tufa, which gives an ethereal look to the place. And as in the best fairy stories, terrifying and hideous things happened in the dungeons. Here in 1327 Edward II was imprisoned in a cell by the horrible pit where rotting carcasses and half-dead prisoners were thrown in hopes that the stench would kill him off. When it didn't, he was tortured to death with the infamous hot poker up the backside. Today, however, Berkeley is an elegant and lovely home set in beautiful gardens. The state rooms contain fabulous collections of furniture, paintings by English and Dutch masters, tapestries and the world-famous Berkeley silver.