Highcliffe Castle

Around 1775, Lord Bute, a former British Prime Minister, had the first manor house built on the site. After his death in 1792, his fourth son, General Charles Stuart, inherited the estate but sold it in 1795. The original building was demolished and replaced by a new construction. Charles Stuart's son, Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, reacquired the estate around 1824. He had the existing manor house demolished and, from 1831, commissioned architect William Donthorne to build the current castle, incorporating his own ideas. Donthorne, a student of Jeffry Wyatville, was inspired by Fonthill Abbey. After Stuart's death, his childless daughter Charlotte, Countess Canning, inherited the estate. Later, in 1893, it passed to her distant cousin Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley. He occasionally leased Highcliffe, including to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who vacationed there in 1907.