What is a folly?

How do you define an architectural folly? There's no simple definition. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as:

"A popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder,"

while Chambers' Dictionary says:

"a great useless structure, or one left unfinished, having been begun without a reckoning of the cost."


But that doesn't begin to hint at the wealth of variety and ingenuity to be discovered in the world's follies. Many of them are used, many of them are finished, some of them were even built with one eye on the balance sheet - what links them all is a joyous unpredictability.

If a building makes you stop, and scratch your head, and ask yourself "Why?", then unless it is a seat of government there is a good chance that it is a folly.

Showing you a picture of one is useless (although further into this site you will discover some wonderful photographs of follies) because the next one you see will almost certainly be totally different. A folly is in the eye of the beholder, wrote Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp in their definitive guide to the follies of Britain: Follies Grottoes and Garden Buildings.

There is only one real rule - true follies are unconscious creations, and the real folly builder will deny that what he or she has created could possibly be a folly. You cannot build one deliberately. Only other people can bestow the title of Folly on your monstrous erection. It's like having a title - you may call yourself a prince but you know in your heart your royal aspirations would not be recognised by the Almanack de Gotha.

This problem of definition can and has been debated for years. In the end, a folly is essentially a misunderstood building.

Some good examples of follies