Clavell Tower

Clavell Tower stands on Hen Cliff above Kimmeridge Bay on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. Built in 1830 in a Tuscan style, it is a four-storey stone tower with a wooden upper section and a stone parapet. The ground floor has a colonnade of Tuscan columns, while the upper floors were reached by ladder. Originally an observatory and folly for Reverend John Richards Clavell, it later served as a Coastguard lookout until the 1930s. The tower’s dramatic history includes a fire in the 1930s and its role in Baroness P. D. James’s novel *The Black Tower*. It also appeared in a 1985 Anglia Television adaptation and a music video by The Style Council. In 2006, the Landmark Trust moved the tower 25 metres inland to save it from coastal erosion, numbering and photographing every stone before reassembly. Visitors now find a holiday home with a living room offering 360-degree views of the coast and countryside. The tower sits on a shallow stone basement and retains its original fireplaces. Nearby, Antony Gormley’s sculpture once stood before falling into the sea in 2015. The site remains a striking landmark, blending history with dramatic coastal scenery.