Lulworth Castle

📍 Dorset, England

4.1 ★★★★ 1,600 reviews

About

Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, England, situated south of the village of Wool, is an early 17th-century hunting lodge erected in the style of a revival fortified castle, one of only five extant Elizabethan or Jacobean buildings of this type. It is listed with Historic England as a scheduled monument. It is also Grade I listed. The 18th-century Adam style interior of the stone building was devastated by fire in 1929, but has now been restored and serves as a museum. The castle stands in Lulworth Park on the Lulworth Estate. The park and gardens surrounding the castle are Grade II listed with Historic England.

Built c.1608 by Thomas Howard, 3rd Viscount Bindon, as a fashionable hunting lodge in the retro castle style. Home of the Weld family for centuries. King James I visited, and it later housed one of England's first Catholic chapels built after the Reformation. Devastated by fire in 1929, the shell was stabilised and partly restored through an English Heritage partnership in the 1990s.