Highcliffe Castle

Highcliffe Castle has been described as arguably the most important surviving house of the Romantic and Picturesque style of architecture. It is a grade 1 listed building built mainly between 1831 and 1836 by Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The magnificent building, once lavishly furnished in the 18th century French style, remained a family home until the 1950’s. Whilst two fires destroyed the rich interiors in the 1960’s, the Castle’s renovated exterior is testimony to the remarkable skills of craftsmen and women who carried out a huge repair and conservation programme in the 1990’s. There is much to see as these renovations continue and much to imagine. One famous resident was Harry Gordon Selfridge. Mr Selfridge lived in the Castle between 1916 and 1922, and is buried with his wife and mother at St Mark’s churchyard just across the road from the Castle.