Château Woolsack, Tudor castle in Mimizan, France.

Château Woolsack is a neo Cape Dutch manor on a small hill above Lake Aureilhan, built of red brick with half-timbered walls. Its square plan has four wings around an open central patio, with stone columns supporting a covered walkway. The main facade faces the lake, and a large stair leads from the landing to the entrance.

Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, bought over 10 hectares on Lake Aureilhan in April 1911 after a boar hunt, and the British Crown gave him the land for his Boer War service. Architects Detmar Blow and Fernand Billerey built the lodge using Herbert Baker's plans for Cecil Rhodes's Cape Town house lent to Rudyard Kipling. German troops requisitioned it on 28 June 1940; a fire destroyed much of it on 23 February 1947, and it was later restored by Mr. Sargos.

The name Woolsack comes from the wool-stuffed seat of the Lord Chancellor in the British House of Lords. Between the wars the Duke received Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dalí and Winston Churchill, who painted about twenty canvases of Mimizan and its surroundings. The Duke's third wife, Loelia Ponsonby, recorded cutting trees to open the lake view and arranging the steps down to the water.

The property is located on Avenue de Woolsack in Mimizan and remains privately owned, making interior access impossible. The exterior facade can be viewed from the street, however, providing a good overview of the architecture.

The Duke reached the lodge by motorboat from a pontoon he built on Lake Aureilhan, as there was no land access at the time. Next to the château stood an English quarter of about a dozen white and black lacquered wooden bungalows for grooms and staff, with stables for thirty horses and kennels for sixty dogs.