Brownsea Castle

Brownsea Castle stands on the south-east corner of Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset. The original blockhouse was built between 1545 and 1547 as a Device Fort by Henry VIII to guard the entrance to the busy harbour. It was a square stone building with a hexagonal gun platform on the seaward side and a moat on the others. The garrison consisted of six soldiers with eight artillery pieces. By the late 16th century the castle had cost Poole over £700 in repairs and maintenance. The castle’s military use ended in the 17th century. In the 1640s it was held for Parliament and garrisoned with twenty men. After the Civil War it passed to the merchant Sir Robert Clayton, who let it fall into disrepair. In 1726 the amateur architect William Benson bought the island and turned the blockhouse into a private house. He removed the fortifications and created ornamental gardens and lakes. In the 19th century Colonel William Waugh added Jacobethan-style extensions. A fire in 1896 gutted the building, which Major Kenneth Robert Balfour restored. Charles Van Raalte filled the house with antique musical instruments in the early 20th century. Mary Bonham-Christie bought the castle in 1927 and allowed it to decay. The National Trust later restored it and now leases it to the John Lewis Partnership as a corporate hotel.