The Yorkshire castle that's been home to an Indian maharajah and a supermodel

Few ancestral piles could say they had been leased by both a displaced Indian maharajah and a supermodel, albeit more than a century apart.

The house near Whitby is the seat of the Marquess of Normanby. It's been in the hands of the Phipps family since the 18th century and the current Lord Normanby is Constantine Phipps.

Nowadays, much of the estate's income is derived from property lets and its grouse shoot. Mulgrave Castle is not open to the public, although occasional tours of the gardens are held in aid of local charities.

But in the middle of the 19th century, visitors to the house could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled into the British Raj.

In 1858, the castle was leased by Duleep Singh, then aged just 20. Singh was a dispossessed Sikh prince who was the last Maharajah of the Punjab region of India before it was annexed by the British. He was only a small child when he became the ruler of the Sikh Empire, but was exiled to Britain and paid an allowance as a teenager when his people were defeated in the Anglo-Sikh War.

He spent time in Scotland, where he developed a love of shooting and other country pursuits, and a friendship with Queen Victoria, who loved the Indian subcontinent, grew. As he entered adulthood, he demanded charge of his own household and took the opportunity to lease Mulgrave Castle when the Marquess moved to Florence to serve as British ambassador, leaving the property vacant. Singh was perhaps attracted to the estate's grouse moors, which today are still considered one of the best shoots in England.

The Indian influence soon began to be felt at Mulgrave. Singh and some of his retinue - including servants recruited from his home country - would hunt and shoot in full Sikh regalia. One of his main interests was falconry.

He used to fish from a boat off Sandsend, using an ancient Chinese method which involved training cormorants to catch fish.

A rumour began to spread that Singh had even imported elephants to hunt with, but local historians now believe there is no evidence the animals ever lived at Mulgrave.

Local gossip also pointed to an illicit affair between the Maharajah and the daughter of a family in Sandsend with whom he became friendly and who later fell pregnant. Although Singh was a young bachelor at the time, marriage to a local girl was out of the question. There is no proof the story is true, but it has a tragic ending - folklore says that the abandoned girl threw herself off the nearby cliffs.

What has been proven is that Singh made a contribution to the local infrastructure that can still be seen today. He built the first road between Sandsend and Whitby, which is still colloquially known as Maharajah's Road, although it is no longer safe to use due to erosion and has been replaced by a modern route. The toll booth he provided is still standing near Whitby Golf Club and was charging drivers up until 1925.

Again, rumours had it that Singh wanted the road laid so that he could walk his mythical elephants down to the beach, but it's more likely he simply wanted to improve access to his home to allow him to entertain reglularly. Queen Victoria even visited Mulgrave.

He was said to have a good relationships with the villagers, often questioning them on their knowledge of the grouse, as many of them were hired as beaters for the shoots.

By 1863, he had left Mulgrave Castle and bought the Elveden estate in Norfolk, where he continued to shoot. He married a German-Egyptian missionary school teacher he met in Cairo and later had eight children with her and his second wife. None of the children had legitimate children of their own and so his direct line of descent is now extinct.

The castle returned to being the Phipps family home, but in 2003 it was announced that Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson has taken out a two-year lease on the estate with her then-partner, French financier Arpad Busson. The couple hoped to develop the shoot and Macpherson was said to be a good shot herself. They were allowed to live in the house itself during the four-month shooting season, and even hosted Madonna and Guy Ritchie as guests. On one occasion, two stylists from a hair salon in Whitby were hired to prepare Macpherson's hair for a Halloween party at the castle. Macpherson and Busson separated in 2005 and Busson later dated Uma Thurman, who was also seen visiting the area.