Scotney Castles

Scotney Castle in Kent comprises two structures: the Old Castle, built around 1378-1380 by Roger Ashburnham as a medieval moated fortress with a distinctive circular tower, and the New Castle, constructed in the 1840s on higher ground overlooking the original site. When Edward Hussey III inherited the estate in 1835, he commissioned architect Anthony Salvin to design a new Elizabethan Revival house, but rather than demolishing the old castle completely, Hussey deliberately preserved it as a romantic ruin within a picturesque landscape garden—making Scotney one of the earliest examples of conscious ruin preservation for aesthetic purposes. The Old Castle, which had served various families including the Catholic Darells for 350 years, became the centerpiece of carefully designed gardens featuring rhododendrons and wisteria, creating a "living painting" that could be admired from the new house above. The Hussey family lived at New Scotney until 1970, when Christopher Hussey, the last private owner and architectural editor of Country Life magazine, donated the entire estate to the National Trust, where it remains one of their most photographed and romantically picturesque properties.