All that remains here is one side of a quadrangular castle, licensed in 1335 and completed in about 1370. The grand apartment and lesser lodgings that make up the existing building were almost certainly the work of Sir Guy de Bryan KG, a close friend and servant of King Edward III, who bought the castle in 1367. Defence is just beginning to give way to a more domestic way of life; but although the hall and the chapel next to it have large windows in the outer walls, they are still up on the first floor, over vaulted kitchens and store rooms.

When we acquired the castle it had passed by inheritance for over 600 years. Two of its owners, the Earls of Ormonde and Devon, were executed in succession during the Wars of the Roses. It then went by marriage to the Strangways, fell into decay and became a farmhouse – an enormous roof of thatch (largely renewed in 2008) replacing the original turrets and crenellations. Meanwhile, the other three sides of the castle gradually disappeared, their stone put to more useful purpose elsewhere.

Inside, among much other work, we have restored the King’s Room, or hall, and given it a new oak ceiling. This, with the chapel and the adjoining Queen’s Room, form the main rooms in which you will stay; their size could justify bringing an extra jersey in the winter. The kitchen, and more bedrooms, are in a warmer eighteenth-century wing on the north-west corner.

An earlier restoration in 1850 was carried out by the builder father of Thomas Hardy, and Hardy himself came here often. It is indeed a prime spot for those who like his books. The castle stands on the south bank of the Frome, three miles below Dorchester, and the north window of the hall looks out across the river and water-meadows to the high ground of Egdon Heath. All this is Hardy’s; here his characters act out their narrow parts, against a backdrop of the Universe.

Sleeps: 8