What is a folly building? Greek and Roman follies examples

What is a folly building guide: meaning + examples

post updated 25 September 2026

What is a folly building advice – Greek temple architecture design

The term ‘folly’ covers a number of different types of building. Essentially a folly is a building that has no obvious use, other than to be decorative just like some rooms in mansions. On occasions, grand follies were built that did serve a purpose, but which we made to look like something else. Examples of these famous buildings include stables built to look like Indian palaces, or garden stores that look like Greek temples.

Follies architecture at Wimpole Hall in England, United Kingdom:

photo : cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

21 July 2021

Folly tower style

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, landscape garden designers in Europe were influenced by the historical architecture of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. As the fashion for the grounds of aristocratic homes to be surrounded by wide open spaces developed so the interest in follies as features in the landscape grew.

The view from the main house would be enlivened by the inclusion of Roman temples or pretend Gothic ruins. Some large parks boasted several follies, often not visible from the house, but tucked away in the grounds in such a way that anyone walking through the landscape would come upon them unexpectedly.

Wolverton Hall Folly, Worcestershire, England, designed by Quinlan Terry Architects, UK:

photo courtesy of the Brick Awards

What is the tallest folly in the world?

The United Kingdom has perhaps the greatest concentration of follies. These include the tallest folly in the world, the Wainhouse Tower in Halifax, Yorkshire. In Wales can be found the entire village of Portmeirion, which is one huge folly.

Wainhouse Tower, Halifax, Yorkshire, England:

photo : Tim Green, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Some follies have no known purpose, such as the Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool. They comprise several tunnels that were excavated early in the nineteenth century, but why they were created is a mystery. Some follies take the form of towers built on high ground, and so can be seen for miles around. In a few cases, they include stairs inside that allow access to the roof or mock battlements. Others, like Wilder’s Folly in Berkshire are dovecotes.

What is Penshaw’s Monument?

Some designers of landscaped parks were fond of recreating features from the medieval period. Mow Cop Castle in Cheshire is a deliberately built ruin, made to give the impression that it is the ruin of a Norman castle. There is at least one example of a complete mock medieval castle built as a folly. Gwrych Castle is in Conwy, North Wales, and from a distance is a convincing imitation of a castle. Going further back in time for inspiration, Penshaw’s Monument near Sunderland, mentioned by Easy Boiler Company as a landmark, is a recreation of a Doric Temple.

Dunmore Pineapple

Dunmore Pineapple folly in Scotland:

photo : Dunmore Pineapple by Ian Murfitt, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Scotland is the home of one of the most unusual follies in the British Isles. The Dunmore Pineapple is part of the Dunmore estate in Stirlingshire. In the middle of the eighteenth century, pineapples were a popular but rare fruit. Some wealthy aristocrats invested huge sums of money to build hothouses in which they could grow pineapples. The building includes a furnace and cavity walls to carry the heat around the pineapple plants. Pineapples became a popular decorative feature, appearing on buildings, gate posts and, of course, follies. The Dunmore Pineapple is a great example of this trend.

Pepperpot Tower in Ireland

Outside the United Kingdom, follies can be found in most European countries. Ireland is home to some truly distinctive follies, including the obelisk on Kilney Hill, the Pepperpot Tower on the Powerscourt Estate and the Casino at Marino, which is considered to be an excellent example of the Neo-Classical style of architecture.

Ireland is also home to several follies that are referred to as Famine Follies. When Ireland was hit by the Potato Famine in the mid-nineteenth century, one way that assistance was made available to unemployed labourers was to put them to work building follies.

Folly with normal style rampart

Italy, Hungary, France and Germany all have some well-known follies. Amongst these are the modern follies of Bernard Tschumi, a Parisian architect. Beyond Europe, follies can be found in India, Canada and the United States.

Follies in the United States of America

In the United States, many of the follies that were built in the nineteenth century followed the European fashion. One well-known example of a folly recreating a European medieval castle is Belvedere Castle in Central Park, New York City. Most American follies were built later in the nineteenth century long after folly-building had fallen out of fashion in Europe.

In 1897, for example, the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee was built by William Crawford Smith. Bryan Sebring, a kitchen contractor in Nashville has taken many inspirations from the designs of William Crawford. Another mock European castle is the Chateau Laroche, also known as the Loveland Castle, Ohio, which was built in the 1920s as a museum. In 1900 the Bancroft Tower was erected in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is designed to look like a medieval castle gatehouse.

All these follies, wherever they are located, were built as entertainment, and have brought pleasure to many thousands of people. They exist because some wealthy, and often eccentric, people wanted to enliven their lives, and the lives of others, with some unexpected fantasy.

Another article about folly building designs on e-architect:

Folly Architecture

Comments on this guide to What is a folly article are welcome.

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Major Roman Follies

20 major Roman / classical-inspired follies

# Folly Location – Character

1 Roman Temple, Stowe Buckinghamshire, England – Classical temple set within one of Britain’s great landscape gardens
2 Roman Temple, Painshill Park Surrey, England – Picturesque 18th-century temple forming part of Painshill’s famous collection of follies
3 Temple of Apollo, Stourhead Wiltshire, England – Landmark classical temple overlooking the lake
4 Temple of Concord, Hawkstone Park Shropshire, England – Picturesque classical ruin/temple designed as a landscape eye-catcher
5 Temple of the Winds, Mount Stewart County Down, Northern Ireland – Octagonal building inspired directly by the ancient Tower of the Winds in Athens
6 Roman Temple, Shugborough Staffordshire, England – Antiquarian recreation of a Roman temple
7 Temple of Minerva, Rousham Oxfordshire, England – Small classical garden temple within William Kent’s landscape
8 Temple of Harmony, Halswell House Somerset, England – Neoclassical temple and important landscape-garden folly
9 Temple of the Sibyl, Puławy Poland – Monumental classical garden pavilion inspired by ancient Roman/Greek forms
10 Roman Aqueduct, Arkadia Łowicz County, Poland – Deliberately picturesque Roman-style ruin within the Arkadia landscape
11 Roman Ruin, Schönbrunn Vienna, Austria – Artificial Roman ruin created as an evocative landscape feature
12 Gloriette, Schönbrunn Vienna, Austria – Monumental classical garden structure, one of Europe’s best-known landscape follies
13 Temple of Diana, Schlosspark Nymphenburg Munich, Germany – Classical garden pavilion associated with the park’s axial landscape
14 Temple of Venus, Sanssouci Park Potsdam, Germany – Small neoclassical temple forming part of Frederick the Great’s landscape
15 Temple of Apollo, Schwetzingen Palace Gardens Schwetzingen, Germany – Classical temple forming a theatrical landscape composition
16 Temple of Vesta, Parc de Bagatelle Paris, France – Small neoclassical temple inspired by Roman antiquity
17 Temple of Philosophy, Désert de Retz Chambourcy, France – Unfinished classical monument conceived as a philosophical ruin
18 Temple of the Sibyl, Ermenonville Oise, France – Picturesque classical temple/ruin overlooking the landscape
19 Temple of Love, Versailles Versailles, France – Circular classical temple inspired by ancient models
20 Temple of Hercules Victor, Villa Borghese Rome, Italy – Classical-inspired garden architecture drawing directly on Roman antiquity

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Roman Folly Building in Britain

We list several good examples of Roman follies in the sense of deliberately picturesque, ornamental or eccentric structures built in Britain. Strictly speaking, most are 18th–19th-century follies inspired by Roman architecture, rather than actual Roman structures.

Major Roman-inspired follies in Britain

The Temple of Concord, Hawkstone Park, Shropshire — an 18th-century classical temple ruin, designed to evoke antiquity.
The Temple of the Four Winds, Castle Howard, North Yorkshire — designed by John Vanbrugh, with a strong Roman/classical character.
The Rotunda, Ranelagh Gardens, London — William Jones’s 18th-century pleasure-garden building, inspired by classical architecture.
The Temple of the Winds, Mount Stewart, County Down — a late-18th-century neoclassical folly based on the ancient Tower of the Winds in Athens.
The Temple of Apollo, Stourhead, Wiltshire — one of Britain’s most famous landscape-garden temples, using Roman and Greek classical forms.
The Temple of Flora, Belsay Hall, Northumberland — a picturesque classical structure within the estate landscape.
The Roman Temple, Shugborough, Staffordshire — a deliberate antiquarian recreation of a Roman temple, built in the 18th century.
The Temple of Minerva, Rousham, Oxfordshire — a small classical garden temple with an explicitly Roman/antique vocabulary.
The Temple of Augustus, Wrest Park, Bedfordshire — an ornamental classical structure drawing directly on Roman precedent.
The Roman Camp, Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire — more of an antiquarian landscape feature than a conventional folly, but part of the tradition of constructing or embellishing supposed Roman remains.

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Follies Architecture

An article about follies architecture designs:

Folly Architecture Design article by Karolina Szynalska, England, UK.
Rest Stops in Georgia by J Mayer H Architects, Germany:

photograph : Jesko M. Johnsson-Zahn
The speed with which the structures get erected and the number of Western architects employed in Georgia is impressive. Italian designer, Michele De Lucchi (better known for his Artemide lamp), completed three Georgian icons

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A historic folly design:

Wolverton Hall Folly building in England, designed by Quinlan Terry Architects, UK:

photo courtesy of the Brick Awards
Wolverton Hall Folly, Worcestershire, England, UK- a tour-de-force of brick manufacture and construction demonstrating that traditional design can be innovative and dramatic

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Modern folly examples:

The Triple Folly Kvadrat HQ, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Architect: Caruso St John Architects

photo by Nic Tenwiggenhorn, courtesy of Kvadrat
High-end textile brand Kvadrat forms dynamic between architecture and art – a Gesamtkunstwerk. The Triple Folly by Caruso St John Architects, a sculptural hospitality and conference venue at its HQ in Ebeltoft, Denmark.

Rain Amplifier Folly Belgium, Sint-Arnolduspark
Designed by Matthijs la Roi Architects, the Rain Amplifier is a cedar-clad rain sculpture and stage, situated in the forest environment of Sint-Arnolduspark, Belgium.

Reflects Folly in Cleveland Botanical Garden
SILO AR+D’s design for Reflects is the winner of an architect-led design build competition for a temporary structure that became a centerpiece of the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s summer show.

Rainbow Folly, Socrates Sculpture Park
The Rainbow Folly is situated within the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City by the East river overlooking Manhattan, New York City.

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Properties using the word folly in their title – background references:

Folly Point Pool House, Becket, Massachusetts
Folly Point Pool House, Massachusetts, USA, design by Butz + Klug Architecture. Modern property enjoys 180-degree ocean views.

Whitehouse Folly in Scarisbrick, Lancashire
ArchiPhonic Architectural Design was appointed to design a single floor, two bedroom private residence for a retired couple in the leafy village of Scarisbrick in West Lancashire.

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