Wyke Castle

Wyke Castle stands at the top of Pirates Lane in Wyke Regis, a village near Weymouth in Dorset. Built around 1855, the building is made of Portland stone rubble and ashlar with slate and lead roofs. It has a two-storey circular tower at its centre, flanked by low projecting ranges that lead to smaller rectangular towers. The circular tower has a domed interior and stone parapets ornament the main structure. The design was influenced by the Martello Tower, a defensive fort built along the coast in the early 19th century. The castle was originally the home of Dr Andrew Chadwick Fenoulhet, a local surgeon who arrived in Weymouth in 1842. After his death in 1862, his wife kept the property until 1879, when it was sold to Mr J. W. Davis. In 1899, Mr P. Cruttwell of Frome used it as a holiday resort. In the 1920s, naturalist Edmund Selous lived there with his wife Fanny Margaret Maxwell, who founded the local Women’s Institute in 1923. Visitors today find three separate dwellings arranged around the original castle layout. The circular tower remains a striking feature, its domed interior still visible. The projecting ranges and smaller towers add to the building’s unusual shape. The castle sits in its own grounds, once including gardens and conservatories. Though no longer open to the public, the exterior and setting offer a quiet reminder of its past as a gentleman’s residence and holiday retreat.