Brownsea Island by third parties, is owned by the National Trust. Most of the buildings are situated near the small landing stage. The northern portion of the island is a Nature Reserve managed by Dorset Wildlife Trust and an important habitat for birds; this part of the island has limited public access. A small portion to the southeast of the island, along with Brownsea Castle, is leased to the John Lewis Partnership for use as a holiday hotel for staff, and is not open to the public. The island forms part of the Studland civil parish in the Purbeck local government district.
Geography of Dorset South Haven Point, is narrow, less than 0.25 miles across. Its shoreline is irregular and heavily indented with numerous small inlets and channels, between which many small peninsulas extend out into the body of the harbour. The harbour also houses several small islands, the largest of which is Brownsea Island. Chesil Beach is a barrier beach on the southwest coast of the county. It is long and stretches between West Bay and the Isle of Portland, although the name Chesil Beach is often only applied to the stretch south-east of Abbotsbury, where it is separated from the land behind it