Max Gate is the former home of Thomas Hardy and is located on the outskirts of Dorchester, Dorset, England.

It was designed by Thomas Hardy and built out of red brick in 1885 in Queen Anne style.

Wanting privacy, Hardy planted a thousand pine trees round the house as a windbreak.

In time these grew so vigorously that the house was rendered dark and gloomy, and his second wife, Florence, removed them after his death.

[3][4] In 2013 two bedrooms were also opened up for the first time, including the room where Thomas Hardy wrote the Mayor of Casterbridge and where he died.