Sherborne Castle Sherborne Castle is a 16th - century Tudor mansion southeast of Sherborne in Dorset , England . The park formed only a small part of the Digby estate . Old castle . Sherborne Old Castle ( ) is the ruin of a 12th - century castle in the grounds of the mansion . The old castle was built as the fortified palace of Roger de Caen , Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England , and still belonged to the church in the late 16th century . Sherborne Lodge After passing through Sherborne on the way to Plymouth , Sir Walter Raleigh fell in love with the castle , and Queen Elizabeth relinquished the estate , leasing it to Raleigh in 1592 , Rather than refurbish the old castle , Raleigh decided to construct a new lodging for temporary visits , in the compact form for secondary habitations of the nobility and gentry , often architecturally sophisticated , that was known as a lodge . The new house , Sherborne Lodge , was a four - story , rectangular building completed in 1594 . The antiquary John Aubrey remembered it as " a delicate Lodge in the park , of Brick , not big , but very convenient for its bignes , a place to retire from the Court in Summer time , and to contemplate , etc . " It had four polygonal corner turrets with angled masonry as if they were actually to serve for military defence , which Nicholas Cooper suggests " may be an obeisance to the old building " . Its most progressive feature for its date was the entrance , disguised in one of the corner towers so as not to spoil the apparent symmetry of the facade , which was centered on a rectangular forecourt . The entrance vestibule also contained a winder stairwell and gave directly on the hall . During Raleigh ' s imprisonment in the Tower , King James leased the estate to Robert Carr and then sold it to Sir John Digby , 1st Earl of Bristol in 1617 . In the 1620s , the Digby family , in order to suit the lodge to a more permanent seat , added four wings to the house in an architectural style similar to the original , retaining the original corner towers . New castle . In the Civil War Sherborne was strongly Royalist , and the old castle was left in ruins by General Fairfax of the Parliamentary forces in 1645 . The name " Sherborne Castle " was then applied to the new house , though today the term Sherborne New Castle is generally used to refer to it , in the same manner as " Sherborne Old Castle " is used for the ruins . Through the early and mid - 18th century William , 5th Lord Digby , who laid out the grounds praised by Alexander Pope , and his heirs Edward , 6th Lord Digby , who inherited in 1752 , and Henry , 7th Lord , created Earl Digby , laid out the present castle gardens , including the 1753 lake designed by Lancelot Brown , which separates the old and new castles . The ruins of the old castle are part of the gardens , being conspicuous amongst the trees across the lake . King George III visited the house and gardens in 1789 , shortly before awarding Henry Digby with a peerage . When Edward , 2nd and last Earl Digby died in 1856 the house was passed to the Wingfield Digby family , who still own the house . The house was modernised by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick . In World War I the house was used by the Red Cross as a hospital and in World War II as the headquarters for the commandos involved in the D - Day landings . The gardens are open to the public much of the year , and the house is open to the public most Saturdays . The estate often hosts special events , such as concerts and firework displays . The old castle was purchased by English Heritage and is now separate from the rest of the estate .