Brownsea Island the island received 133,340 visitors. The island's name comes from Anglo-Saxon "Brūnoces īeg" = "Brūnoc's island". Brownsea Island lies in Poole Harbour opposite the town of Poole in Dorset, England. It is the largest of eight islands in the harbour. The island can be reached by one of the public ferries or by private boat. There is a wharf and a small dock near the main castle. The island is long and wide and consists of of woodland (pine and oak), heathland and salt-marsh. The entire island, except the church and a few other buildings which are leased or managed
Brownsea Castle another device in 1544 to further improve the country's defences, particularly along the south coast. The castle was built on the south-east corner of Brownsea Island between 1545 and 1547 to protect the entrance of the busy Poole Harbour. The island belonged to the Crown, having been confiscated from Cerne Abbey during the Dissolution of the Monasteries a few years before. It was a conservative design, being a one-storey, square blockhouse, reported in 1552 to be across, able to support guns on its roof and sub-divided into three rooms; the blockhouse was originally intended to have been two storeys in