Shell Grotto

A grotto or summer-house built at the summit of the hill with wonderful views but no outlook since it is a building designed purely for interior effect. The exterior, which was restored in 1994, is almost circular, with a wall of roughly coursed limestone rubble on the windward side, this contains a deeply indented doorway; and a random rubble wall with four small windows on the north side. These windows are metal framed casements with leaded lattices of partly coloured glass and Y-tracery and plank shutters. These are reproduction features of 1994. The roof is a cone of stone slates, and there is a small chimney.

The interior of this grotto is particularly fine and is undergoing full restoration at the time of writing (November 1996). It has a small fireplace and four windows with partly-coloured glass as already described. The roof is vaulted and is supported on six slender columns, which were traditionally supposed to be trees but are actually stone built. The whole of the wall and ceiling surface is plastered and decorated in patterns of shells, and with quartz, spar, mica and other reflective crystals.The patterning includes stars, flowers and geometric designs. Each arch is outlined in larger shells, with plate oysters at the springing of each arch, while each roof section has a pendant with a pink conch as the finial. The teeth and bone floor is patterned with interlacing arcs, flowers and a ring of hearts and diamonds. Much of this work is entirely new, but reproduces the previous patterning as far as possible. This is a high quality piece of imaginative design, and is entirely typical of the age and society which produced it.