Below are four separate entries from Face Book about a strange castle we happened upon in Perigord:

On the way to see the Chateau of Bourdeilles in Perigord we spotted this marvellous castle perched perfectly on a rock. No name no sign just notices saying Privé. I shall have to start some research

Okay back again to this rather mysterious castle which we passed on the road in Perigord last week. By the simple process of retracing our route on Google Earth I eventually found roughly a large building where I remembered seeing the castle. I pulled out the little man which brings you to ground level and Bingo ! I had it.
It is the Chateau de Ramefort, seems to have been in the same family (also called Ramefort) for some hundreds of years and no it does not allow visits, ever. So much so that I cannot find any pictures of the interior on the net. Furthermore despite being a wine producer of some size they have no web page of their own.

Another little oddity was in a field just under the castle where there was a large rock with an Oak Tree growing from its heart. This also had various windows and apertures evidently carved into it by man. Very odd indeed. I’m still hoping I will come up with some story about the place, or maybe I will just have to invent one!

Okay thanks to a lead from Kathy Dettwyler I have discovered some of the history of this castle. It seems that The Black Prince in the 1350’s stayed there overnight which would indicate a certain loyalty of the Ramefort family to the English side in the 100 year war. There is another tradition in the family that there was a secret chamber under the living area which was used to hide English soldiers during the same war. The present owner when asked about this explained that this supposed chamber lay underneath a very expensive parquet floor and that he had no intention of ripping this up to discover if the stories were true.
I tell you you couldn’t make this stuff up !