Stake your claim – Castle Dracula is up for sale

Perched on top of what Dracula author Bram Stoker would term a 'terrific precipice', Bran Castle is Romania's biggest tourist attraction, drawing 560,000 visitors annually and is now up for sale.

Mark Meyer of Herzfeld and Rubin, the law firm handling the sale, says they're open to select offers:

'If someone comes in with a reasonable offer, we will look at who they are, what they are proposing and will seriously entertain the idea.'

Before the prospect of owning such a gothic gem gets your blood pumping, be warned that the asking price of £47 million could mean your carefully thought out decorating plans may be in vein (sic).

What could prove an even bigger pain in the neck is that the current owner, Archduke Dominic Von Hapsburg, is hoping that any buyers will commit to developing the castle even further as a leading (and preferably not too vampire-themed) tourist destination.

But what really sucks is that the links with Dracula are, at best, tenuous. According to Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, the location Stoker had in mind for Castle Dracula was an empty mountain top, Mount Izvorul Călimanului, more than 100 miles away from Bran Castle.

And even if you choose to consider historic figure Vlad the Impaler as Stoker's inspiration, there's no proof he ever stayed at Bran and, what's worse, other sites have far stronger connections. 

Chief of these is Poenari Citadel, which Vlad used as one of his main fortresses. Talk about being crossed....

That said, Ideal Home's Amy Cutmore has visited the castle and thinks it definitely has some plus points. The balconies overhanging a central courtyard are stunning, and the views across the Romanian landscape are breathtaking in all the right ways. Sure, it's quite a climb to get to it, but a market at the bottom of the hill serves up plenty of local delicacies to enjoy as reward for your trek. 

(And just in case you haven't had your fill, here's one final dreadful Dracula joke:
Why don't vampires ever attack lawyers? Professional courtesy.....)