An eccentric ‘Treasure Island’ inspired home built by the late media mogul Felix Dennis has gone on the market for £4million – with the entire house centring around a pirate-themed swimming pool and palm trees. 

While it may appear to be a ‘normal’ barn conversion from the outside, the playboy’s former property in Dorsington, Warwickshire, is far from what you might expect inside. 

Entering the traditional tithe barn visitors are met with the large open-plan pirate-themed playroom, complete with a pool and jacuzzi, a crow’s nest with a ship’s wheel, a fish tank wall, and a shipwrecked boat.

From the pool the large living space branches off into two wings, where the property’s two bedrooms are, along with a solarium, sauna, steam room, and open gallery.

Highfield was ‘built as a modern twenty-first century folly’ by the maverick publisher Mr Dennis – who had a passion for both Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and tithe barns and combined them in this property.

Built at a cost of of £5million to Mr Dennis, the 12,185 square foot home is now on sale for the discounted price of £4million.

While it may appear to be a ‘normal’ barn conversion from the outside the property is far from it, with the home’s extensive living rooms all branching off from the main pool area

The home centres around a playground-style barn with a pool and palm trees.

Mr Dennis, who commissioned the property, was one of the founders of 1960s counter-culture magazine Oz

Here the living room sofas can be seen in close proximity to the pool.

Mr Dennis was jailed for nine months after being found guilty of obscenity in 1971 before being cleared on appeal – before moving to Highfield in 1987

Inside the green oak structure, which was the largest of its kind when it was built in 1987, Mr Dennis created a communal playroom for the home’s residents, with two additional wings tied to the main barn with practical living space. 

The home also comes with an additional two cottages, both two-bedroom – making up for the small number of bedrooms in the main house.

Below ground the basement houses an authentic Art Deco inspired cinema, bar and entertainment area as well as a control room and an underground parking area with a car turntable.  

Dennis, who divided his time between homes in Warwickshire, London, New York, Connecticut and the Caribbean island of Mustique, claimed to have become rich by ‘accident’.

The exterior of Highfield 

Inspired by former publisher Felix Dennis’ love for Treasure Island, the farmyard barn building disguises a pirate-themed playland with a ship

The colourful provocateur, who went jail in the 1970s, left instructions that the bulk of his £500million fortune should go to the upkeep of a forest he planted near his home

Below ground the basement houses an authentic Art Deco inspired cinema, bar and entertainment area

The basement also holds a control room and an underground parking area with a car turntable.

Pictured: The cinema 

Highfields has private access to the Heart of England Forest which covers 7,000 acres of ancient and new woodland with 1.8 million new trees plant in recent years – which was started by Mr Dennis

The colourful provocateur, who went jail in the 1970s, left instructions that the bulk of his £500million fortune should go to the upkeep of a forest he planted near his home. 

Highfields has private access to the Heart of England Forest which covers 7,000 acres of ancient and new woodland with 1.8 million new trees plant in recent years – which was started by Mr Dennis.

The property also boasts 4.2 acres of private garden. 

Despite its quirkiness the property is fitted out to ‘an exceptional standard by skilled craftsmen using the finest materials’

It also features a nautical themed bedroom in the south wing, complete with a four-poster bed with two ship figureheads at the end

Mr Dennis described himself as a ‘coked-up, overweight, cigarette- smoking, malt-whisky swilling idiot with too much money’.

Pictured: A pirate figure within the house

Despite its quirkiness the property is fitted out to ‘an exceptional standard by skilled craftsmen using the finest materials, such as Verona Italian marble and Lincoln sandstone, to create an architectural adventure’, writes Savills who are marketing the property.

The home features handcrafted mosaic designs in the pool and a clay mythical dragon on the main ridge.

It also features a nautical themed bedroom in the south wing, complete with growing a small business four-poster bed with two ship figureheads at the end.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news" data-version="2" id="mol-9504b9c0-bf17-11eb-a434-91d3d9d43f88" website estate owned by playboy publisher Felix on market for £4m