It’s said that, while looking at a painting during a visit to Kasteel Doorwerth, a woman suddenly felt “cold and very scared”. This terrifying ordeal is now claimed to have been an encounter with the supernatural, and it’s not the only time ghostly activities have been experienced within the walls of this castle on the banks of the Rhine, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Such is the paralysis-inducing fear people have been subjected to, a British paranormal psychologist (whatever that is) came to the Netherlands to investigate. He’s said to have witnessed the horrifying sight of two “vapour-like mists”.
People seem to love a ghost story and, even on the freezing cold day I visited, the castle was busy with visitors. Given Kasteel Doorwerth’s dramatic location close to the Rhine and backed by woodlands, and a violent history stretching back to the 13th century, it hardly seems worthwhile trying to add the extra drama of supernatural goings-on. As I cycled along the banks of the Rhine I could see the castle in the distance. It looked very peaceful sat in the Gelderland landscape, but looks can be deceiving. This castle has seen a lot of action.
During Operation Market Garden and the Battle for Arnhem in September 1944, the castle was heavily bombed. Medieval building techniques were no match for modern warfare, and it was reduced to a tragic pile of rubble. It took 37 years, but the castle was fully restored to its former glory and reopened to the public in 1983. This wasn’t the first time the castle had been destroyed though. The first recorded mention of it comes in 1260, when it was besieged by the Bishop of Utrecht, who ordered it to be burnt to the ground.
At that time it was mainly a wooden building, when it was rebuilt they took the sensible precaution of using bricks. A huge defensive tower was added, as was the moat that still surrounds the castle today. I walked across the drawbridge over the moat into the lovely courtyard, in the centre of which is an ancient tree said by many to be the oldest in the Netherlands. It struck me that the tree might have been the inspiration for the white tree of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings.
The tree, an acacia, was planted in the late 16th or early 17th century, and has a very impressive circumference of around seven meters. It’s clearly famous as people were taking selfies in front of it. After enduring sub-zero temperatures on the way to the castle, the courtyard was sheltered from the freezing wind and bathed in winter sun. I sat on a bench and warmed up a little before going inside. Oddly for the Netherlands, there was only information in Dutch, but some rooms had people in period costumes explaining things.
The castle’s not large and I was back in the courtyard in less than an hour. I got back on the bike and headed to Arnhem. It was only afterwards, sat in a cafe eating a warming bowl of erwtensoep, that I discovered a bizarre link between Doorwerth Castle and Kirkby Lonsdale, the small market town where I went to school in northern England. I was part of Bentinck House at school, named after Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, a large landowner in the area.
Originally from Germany, Bentinck’s were Counts of the Holy Roman Empire. Through marriage they inherited lands in the Netherlands, including Kasteel Doorwerth. The family also had an English branch, started by Captain John Albert Bentinck in the 18th century. Despite his Dutch and German parentage, his grandfather was the British Earl of Portland and he inherited lands in England. The Cavendish-Bentinck after which my school house was named, was a halfbrother of the Duke of Portland. The connected history of Europe’s aristocracy never ceases to amaze.
Notes from Camelid Country 
Beautiful!!
It’s a fabulous place. Worth a visit if you ever come across the border from Belgium!
Well how bizarre! A nearby town of Portland, Victoria, has it’s main street of Bentinck !. The world just got smaller 🙂
I’ll have to re-read their local history.
A family that travels! I imagine there’s some connection – you have to be famous or wealthy (or both) to get a street named after you.
great post. I really enjoyed this
Thank you. It was a fun place to visit, even on such a cold day.
Very interesting history tour with some fine images. And you said it, the connected history of Europe’s aristocracy never ceases to amaze! Thank you for sharing.
I know, it’s a very small world in the aristocracy!