Cowes Castle (Royal Yacht Squadron)

En un regard

Le château en bref

Set on a rocky spur at the mouth of the Medina, Cowes Castle (West Cowes Castle) is one of the two forts that Henry VIII had built around 1538-1539 on either side of the estuary to protect the Solent against a possible French or Imperial landing. Its eastern twin, at East Cowes, disappeared long ago, carried away by the erosion of the shore. Of the Tudor fortification there remain only a low seaward-facing bastion, crowned by a crenellated parapet, and a squat fragment of the central round tower, built of dressed limestone that tradition says was salvaged from the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu, dissolved shortly before. Most of the present building belongs to an 18th-century house, later transformed by the architect Anthony Salvin into a club with the air of a small neo-medieval castle, with a corner tower and a crenellated entrance lodge. Since the mid-19th century, the castle has housed the Royal Yacht Squadron, one of the most prestigious yacht clubs in the world. Its battery of small bronze cannon, lined up facing the sea, gives the start and finish signals of the Cowes Week regattas every summer. The building, Grade II* listed, remains a private club: it can be admired from The Parade promenade and the seafront.