Picturesque, pristine and paparazzi-proof: One of the most celebrated homes in the Caribbean is on the market

The Fustic Estate is the sort of place people fall in love with.

The present owner, Kit Braden, came here with his wife in 2011 and fell in love with it instantly. A few years before that it was the turn of William and Jan Gordon, who visited the house thanks to a chance encounter while honeymooning in Barbados in 2004, and ended up buying the place.

Even Country Life architectural editors — usually a level-headed lot — are not immune. Jeremy Musson (who writes for us still) paid a visit, and ended up writing an entire book about the place, Fustic House & Estate — A Messel Masterpiece. And that leads us to Oliver Messel himself: one of the titans of 20th century design, Messel completely remodelled the original 1740 building to create the house as it stands today.

Messel, the man often credited with 'inventing' the outdoor living lifestyle, created a home which he considered his masterpiece — and that's saying something, considering the number of magnificent villas he designed across the Caribbean's smartest spots.

Today, it's the turn of a new owner to fall in love with the place. The Bradens have reluctantly decided that now is the time to step aside, and it's for sale through Knight Frank with a guide price of $22.5 million.

Bare numbers rarely do much to illuminate a house's charms, but in the case of Fustic House they are impressive: 13,000sq ft of space within an 11-acre plot that stretches from it's secluded spot in the hills down to the sea.

Big as it is, though, it's a house which has a hugely flexible floorplan arranged around a main home and a couple of wings, making it 'as comfortable for two people as it is for 14,' says Knight Frank's Andy Blandford-Newson. There are seven bedrooms, relaxed living spaces, terraces and balconies, kitchens and bathrooms. There's also a separate secondary accommodation

The garden setting appears at first glance breathtakingly natural, but it's actually the result of outstanding work over many years. Messel started the work rolling with his designs for Vivien and Charles Graves — the latter the brother of the poet Robert Graves — who owned the house in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2000 the surroundings were years the much-lauded landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan (a multiple gold medallist at the Chelsea Flower Show) was hired by then-owner Sigrid Rausing to revamp and revitalise the grounds.

If you're not already sold, we've yet to discuss one of the undisputed jewels of the property: the pool.

Blasted from the coral by Messel, and considered by the designer to be the defining feature of the property, it's like a Barbadian Garden of Eden: a plunging pool tucked into the hillside, overhung by vegetation and with a deck that overhangs the ravine. It's been here for six decades, but has recently been re-engineered to make sure it remains as usable as it is beautiful.

The pool, just like the rest of the property, is tucked in amid the greenery, earning it a long-standing reputation as 'paparazzi-proof'. Little surprise, then, to hear that it's long been a popular place for high-end fashion shoots and A-lister's weddings.

We'll leave the last word, though, to Jeremy Musson, who called it 'quite simply one of the jewels of the Caribbean. 'It's like something out of a dream,' added Jeremy. 'One of those rare places, which once seen, is never forgotten.'

The Fustic Estate is for sale via Knight Frank — see more details.