Tourists wanting to stay in a stunning cliff top tower will have a long wait - as it is booked solid until July 2019. The striking Clavell Tower overlooking Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset has inspired literary greats including Thomas Hardy and PD James.
The tower's owners, the Landmark Trust, says as soon as new dates are made available to the public, they are quickly snapped up The Grade II listed 40ft tower, which was built in 1830, was saved from a watery grave more than a decade ago and opened to the public as a quirky holiday let in August 2008.
Ever since then it has proved incredibly popular and currently has an 18-month waiting list - because that's as far ahead as the trust's booking calendar goes. From the 1880s until 1914 it served as a lookout post for the coastguards but it was then left empty and became increasingly derelict.
PD James was inspired to write her book The Black Tower after seeing it in 1973 and the tower was painted black for the TV adaptation of the book in 1985. After four years of fundraising and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the complicated project to move the tower began.
The transformed tower now offers accommodation for two with a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen/dining room and lounge over four storeys. The bedroom, on the third floor, has a door onto a balcony that circles the whole building and the seating area on the top floor offers a fantastic vantage point to watch the changing light, weather and sea from the cosy hideaway.
The South West Coastal Path runs along past its door and guests have a ten-minute walk from the car park to the tower. A spokesman for the Landmark Trust said Clavell Tower is definitely one of our most popular properties. He said it was snapped up ever since its opening in August 2008.
“It has quite a dramatic story to it as we basically took it away from the edge of the cliff and put it back together again further back - that essentially bought it another couple of hundred years.
“The location is stunning - being able to stare out at the sea while lying in bed is quite spectacular. As soon as we release new dates they get booked really quickly. I would advise people to ring up within the first hour or two of the dates being released,” the spokesman said.