Brownsea Castle

Brownsea Castle is a country house situated on Brownsea Island, Studland, and currently used as a holiday centre. The site incorporates a blockhouse and gun platform dating from 1548, which was raised and extended around 1765. Further extensions were added in the early and mid-19th century. The building was gutted by fire and partially rebuilt in 1897, under the direction of Philip Brown of Southampton. The walls are constructed from a mix of part coursed and squared rough ashlar stone and brick, with stone dressings. Flat roofs are topped with battlemented parapets. The exterior largely exhibits a Victorian Tudor style, with an irregular plan and profile dominated by a tower built off the original blockhouse.

The main building is partially two stories and partially three stories high, with the tower rising a further two stories above. The south-west front, facing the sea, features a two-story building from around 1850, positioned in front of the tower. This section has angle buttresses topped with octagonal pinnacles, a cornice featuring carved lion heads, and a canted central bay with mullioned and transomed windows. Pointed arched doorways are located on either side of this bay at ground floor level, above which are matching mullioned and transomed windows. The tower is constructed of brick and has stone mullioned and transomed windows, with the lower lights blocked. To the left of the tower is a two-story brick range with a moulded parapet and string course, featuring an angle buttress. Mullioned windows are present on each floor. To the right of the tower is a three-story stone range with battlements and a moulded string course, culminating in an octagonal turret with transomed windows. At the rear, a single-story range was added in the mid-19th century on the north-east side, incorporating a circular and an octagonal turret.

Internally, remnants of the original blockhouse walls survive on the ground floor, some with a slight batter, and are now plastered, with no other original features visible. The interior is largely of 1897 design. Several rooms feature good panelling and ornamental ceilings. One first-floor room contains a reset stone fireplace surround from the 16th century, with lion head and foot consoles. Another first-floor room has a fireplace with carved stone cartouches, including the lion of St. Mark, believed to be from Venice. The property is owned and managed by the National Trust.