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Knepp Castle

📍 West Sussex, England

3.5 ★★★½ 120 reviews

About

The medieval Knepp Castle is to the west of the village of West Grinstead, in the parish of Shipley, West Sussex, England near the River Adur and the A24. The castle was probably founded by the Braose family in the 12th century. King John confiscated the castle along with the Braose lands in 1208. Knepp was used as a hunting lodge, and John visited the castle several times. He ordered its destruction in both 1215 and 1216 during the First Barons' War.

Built soon after the Norman Conquest, possibly by William de Braose. The current castle (actually a 19th-century mock-Gothic house) replaced the medieval ruins. Since 2000, Sir Charles Burrell has transformed 3,500 acres of former farmland around the castle into the Knepp Wildland—England's first large-scale lowland rewilding project. The medieval motte and ruins survive in the estate grounds.