A Folly in the Garden

Several weeks ago I decided to have a change to my normal stamping ground and went walking in the south of the country for a few days. I am used to rugged terrain or rolling hills so what struck me first about the area were the wide open spaces and vast expenses of flat ground or gentle hillocks. I then began to notice that dotted about here and there were tall, unusual buildings. On getting up close to one or two of them I realised that they seemed to serve no useful purpose other than garden decoration, as they had no doors or windows. I vowed that once I got home I would try and find out more about the origins of these weird structures.# Once back home I discovered that they were called follies and were often commissioned by great landowners to grace their large estates. Some may have once had a practical purpose but most were built purely for decoration or as a dedication to a lost relative. Many of the great estates already had ruins contained within their grounds, such as the remains of monasteries or Roman villas. Those people who were not so lucky as to own these original features simply constructed their own to look like the desired ruins. The word ‘folly’ was a popular word for any costly structure that appeared to show unwise decisions made by the builder, the word became synonymous with these garden structures. These follies do not always take the form of a ruined building however, they sometimes have the appearance of being built for a particular use but in fact the opposite is true, and because they actually look like buildings they cannot be mistaken for other garden ornaments or sculpture. A number of them take the form of tall towers that dominate the landscape whether they are on a hilltop or in the open countryside. Most lack any elaborate ornamentation but some can be very distinctive and draw attention to themselves by being a particular shape or form, such as a triangle or even a piece of fruit. They are meant to be pleasing to the eye and as such were built as diverting amusements for their owners who had commissioned them especially. However, some were built purely to provide work for poor people who would otherwise have to resort to handouts or the workhouse. During the famine in Ireland in the nineteenth century people were encouraged to work on such projects in order to earn a few pence. The ‘powers that be’ of the time felt that reward should not be given without it being earned but also existing construction workers should not be done out of their jobs. Thus starving and weak people were employed to build roads that led nowhere or walls that didn’t enclose anything in an effort to improve their self-esteem and make them believe they were doing something useful. I realise now that whilst on my travels I have probably seen many follies without understanding what they were, and perhaps put them down to being lookout towers or the remains of a great building, the rest of which has long been gone. Maybe I can improve my own patch of land with an amusing building – now, where did I put that tape measure?

Bruno Blackstone is Marketing Director at My Outdoor Store, the premier walking and hiking outdoor gear store.