Once you go back outside, you walk around the back of the castle to see the private chapel and gun-room of the family. The chapel contains the original wooden cross of Adrian Drewe’s grave in France, which was later replaced by the white stone gravestones seen on millions of graves in France and Belgium. The chapel has wooden floors, pews, pulpit and altar, with a small organ and a hymn board. It’s a lovely room, with a vaulted granite and white-plaster ceiling. In one corner, there is a model of the castle architect’s (Edwin Lutyens) memorial to the missing of the British Empire, the Thiepval Arch.

In the next-door gun room are records, drawings, and papers relating to the castle and the building of it.

The gardens outside the castle are on the route you are sign-posted to take out the property – they are extensive, with rose gardens, formal lawns, and a giant croquet lawn with room for 4 games (two are set out, with all the hoops properly banged into the grass). There is also a small toy house that was set up for Drewe’s grandchildren to play in.

Like many important buildings in the country, the castle is owned by the National Trust. It costs about £10 for 2 adults to enter Castle Drogo. If you are planning to visit many other such buildings, it might be worth joining the National Trust for a year – it costs £50 for 2 adults, £32 if both are under 26.

Overall, the castle is an impressive and amazing building – but to me it also seemed a bit sad, almost a folly. It took 25 years from conception to completion, and Julius Drewe only actually lived here for a couple of years after it was finished, before he died. And it was all built because he had some grand ambition to build an ancestral home in the area of a baron he is unlikely to have been related to anyway. Whatever you think of the man, the building is certainly absolutely fascinating; dodgy taste in furniture notwithstanding.

The castle is about 3.5 miles south of the A30 road which goes from Exeter to Okehampton.

Underneath this room is the Dining Room, which features a huge oak table which is laid for a formal dinner. There are painting of Drewe’s parents and grandparents, and a lovely red patterned rug covering most of the room’s floor. The ceiling, which is beautifully elaborate white plaster-work, feels a bit oppressive for a room as big as this, but it’s still a nice place to be. There is a huge tapestry on one wall of a battle scene, and some very odd horns for drinking out of, encrusted with silver and too heavy to be useful.

The practical rooms downstairs are very interesting – and the architect didn’t stint his attention here. The kitchen is especially amazing – the only light is from a huge windowed dome in the centre of the room, and under the dome is an incredible circular wooden table to preparing food on, which appears to be the same size as the dome. There are chopping boards which fit the table, being curved in the same way, and it’s a very clever room altogether.

Leaving the kitchen rooms, (there are also servants’ room, pantries, etc) you go up again to the family bedroom floor. The rather unimpressive paintings on the walls were executed by various members of the Drewe clan, which is just as well, as it would be a waste to pay for most of them. One of the most interesting rooms is Julius Drewe’s study, which has his rent books, fishing equipment, family papers and photos, and books, and must have been a pleasant place to work. The bathroom nearby is amazing – it features a bath with a curved ceramic shower at one end – the shower has little holes all the way up the sides to spray water on the body as well as the head of the person standing in it; a very useful idea.

Next to these rooms are bedrooms, the main one being that of Julius Drewe and his wife. The windows again have a pleasant view, and the bed has a formal dress laid out on it, so that one can imagine the process of dressing for dinner, before heading down to the Dining Room below.

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The site is impressive – on three sides is falls away steeply from the level ground on which the castle is built, and has the most spectacular views on all sides of the building over the moor. Inside, the castle is a cleverly designed, impressively comfortable early 20th century home.

As you walk up the drive to the castle, you see the impressive Taw gorge around it – this is a defensive site the Normans would have appreciated! The huge stone doorway has the motto Drogo Nomen et Virtus Arma Dedit carved above it (Drogo is the name and the valour gives it arms). Go through the door way, and the huge stone hall, and the first room you come to is the library. This is a large, but still homely room – lined with books on one side. The books seemed to us to have been mostly bought by the yard to fill the space, rather than being books the family wanted to read – there were shelves full of seemingly untouched leather-bound volumes, with a few more handled classics at one end. There is also a full-size snooker table, and a table-football game, as well as leather armchairs next to the windows for the sitter to read and appreciate the view out of the large glass expanse. Unlike some of the rooms of the castle, this room is comfortable and low-key in its decoration, and looks like a pleasant place to spend an afternoon reading or chatting.

The corridor you walk along after coming out of the library is wonderfully designed to make use of the stone – the walks are bare stone, and the ceiling white plaster with a circle of stone showing in each section, with arches leading between sections. It’s very clever, and beautiful, but not very hospitable – I’d imagine it would feel rather chilly to walk along such a corridor in the winter.

This entry is written in 3 parts, as there is a maximum of 500 words per entry.