Sir Julius was a self-made millionaire whose chain of Home and Colonial Stores enabled him to retire in 1899 at the age of 33.  He had discovered that a Norman baron named Drago de Teigne was his ancestor and was determined to build a castle on the acres that had once belonged to the baron.  Sir Julius choose this dramatic site, 900 feet above the Teign gorge as the site of his castle.  The foundation stone was laid on Sir Julius'  55th birthday in 1911. 

The original plans were for a more grandiose house but Sir Julius and his wife decided that the rooms were too large for comfort and in 1912 made a last-minute revision.  The scaled down Castle Drago admirably fulfilled his plans.  The construction of the building took 20 years.  The castle was built from granite and every block had to be specially quarried and then laid by two masons.   Sadly, Sir Julius died only one year after the castle was completed in 1930.

The medieval style interior at first seems to be as forbidding as the outside of the castle with bare stone walls and unpainted woodwork.  However, Castle Drago is a country house masquerading as a fortress.  There is an elegant dining room and the panelled drawing-room has chintz-covered sofas.  The bathrooms are elaborate and designed for comfort.  Many rooms contain the Spanish furniture acquired after the bankruptcy of the banker Adrian de Murietta.  The castle has many changes of level, huge passages and a magnificent staircase.

Lutyens was also involved in the design of the large formal garden but most of the layout and planting were carried out by the garden designer George Dillistone who was employed at Castle Drago in 1922.   There are massive yew hedges cut in geometric shapes and granite steps leading up a series of terraces.  At the top of the garden a huge circular lawn is edged by more yew.  To the west where the ground falls away to the valley and is an informal shrub garden, created in the 1950s, containing magnolias, camellias, cherries, maples and rhododendrons. 

There are spectacular views over Dartmoor and walks in the Teign Gorge.