All these follies have been built since the book, Follies, Grottoes and Garden buildings came out. Many are in private gardens, so there will be no public access and I have not given precise locations for these.
The Belvedere, designed by Prince Charles, at Dumfries House, Scotland. Built 2016.
A new folly (actually a garage) at Acton Round, Shropshire, circa 2019
A new gothick temple at Woolbeding, Sussex, designed by the Bannermans.
One of two metal temples facing each other by Pablo Bronstein, at Jupiter Artland, Scotland.
A wonderful water powered organ at Cavenham, Suffolk. Water pours from the statue, over the roof and down over a rotating mechanism which causes the organ to burst into life. Different tunes are possible by feeding it punched paper rolls.
An onion domed summerhouse with a shell decorated interior built c 2016 at Pen Selwood, Dorset.
Part of the Forbidden Corner, this purports to be the family Mausoleum of the Armstrongs who own this place. But a temptingly large key in the door invites you in, and all is not as it seems. circa 2014.
Originally planned to hold aerials for a mobile phone company in its domes, it was completed as a folly even though the phone company pulled out. It stands just outside the Larmer Tree gardens in Wiltshire and is 65ft tall. Built in 2009.
Part of the modern gardens at Hampton Court in Herefordshire, this tower forms the centrepiece of a maze. Once the tower is reached, stairs take you up to a view from the top, or downwards into a tunnel which leads to another part of the garden.
A small stone tower at Westonbury Water Gardens in Herefordshire. Water is carried in small buckets from a stream beneath it to a tank in the roof. From there it ejects at intervals from one of the gargoyles.
The waisted tower at Penpergwyn Lodge, near Abergavenny, Wales. Built by the same man who did all the towers at Stone Cottage, Kidderminster, this one follows a similar pattern being of brick but with no interior detail.
This is just part of the strange village constructed around the Rectory garden centre at Wigan – it varies in style and new buildings and figures are constantly being added.
The shell house is part of a modern garden behind a town house in Welshpool, Powys. There is also a gothic arch, a japanese temple and several other bits all crammed into a very small space.
A set of metal pyramids in the Lavender Farm at Terrington, Yorkshire, representing the four members of the family.
A giant mosaic tortoise forms the roof of this small undergound room in Hope, Shropshire. The rockery to the side conceals a tunnel. Built 2007.
These strange modern toilets are the result of an architectural competition to find a new design after the ornate Victorian toilet block got swept away in a flood. Built 2011.
This ruined castle was built in the front garden of a 1930s house in Bramhall, Manchester, starting around the year 2000 and still being worked on.
Part of the interior of a new shell house, built as a detached dining room at Terrington, Yorkshire.
One of two elaborate garden temples at Horton Menagerie, Northamptonshire. Built in 1992, both have two faces in different styles, one is equipped as a chapel, the other as a spare guest room.
A dovecote at Bryan’s Ground, Herefordshire which has never actually housed any doves and is purely ornamental. Built late 1990’s.
A giant cuckoo clock, house in a two storey oak building at Westonbury Water Mill, Herfordshire. This is powered by a very complicated mechanism, fed by water and culminating in the cuckoo coming out of the doors on the hour, making its cuckoo call accompanied by a background of bird twittering. Completed in 2013.
Foel Ortho, in Wales, is an old house on top of a hill with about an acre of steep rocky garden. This space has been filled with a village made up of colourful , almost two dimensional houses, with fake rocks, steps, bridges, a giant chess set and many other features, all made from cheap materials like concrete blocks, sand and gravel. The whole thing looks like a mini Portmeirion and is often filled with the sounds of music.
The Maiden’s Tower, Kyre Park, Worcestershire. The tower is at the end of a tunnel and has a grotto-like room beneath it. It was built in the late 1990s.
Cadmore Tower, near Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, is a romantic tower which stands in the middle of a lake and is accessed via a drawbridge. It has three rooms one on each fllor, and is topped by a thatched conical roof. It was built for the millenium.
This octagonal brick tower stands at the centre of a maze and is lined internally with mirrors, making it look much larger inside than out. It is in Durweston, Dorset and was built around 2015.
A small sham chapel made by a local stonemason in Felminham, Norfolk.
A changing room for the tennis court at Elton Hall, Herefordshire, made of painted corrugated iron, in the shape of a circus tent.
Adlington Hall, Cheshire, has a folly known as the Tig House in its garden, based on a Chinese style of roadside resting house. This particular one is a smaller replica made for a garden show and now back by the lawn at Adlington.
A gothic style bus-stop at Cross Houses, Shropshire, made as part of an art project, using bricks from the demolished workhouse nearby, around 2001.
One of several classically styled follies made in oak at the Collector Earl’s Garden, and opened in 2013.
A very old looking folly stands on a hill in Berwick St John, Dorset. It comprises an ivy covered tower attached to an arch, and there is a staircase to an upper room and the roof. It was actually built in the 1960s from reclaimed stone from a nearby house that had been demolished . It was repaired in the 1990s.
A second folly at Berwick St John again made from reused stonework.
The Watchtower is one of numerous new follies built at Consall Hall, Staffordshire in grounds restored from land that was formerly used for open cast mining.
This modern grotto at Cwm-Weeg, near Newtown, Powys is fitted out with coloured glass chunks lit with fibre optics, and a trickle of water passes through, enhanced by a mist machine.
The Rustic House stands in one corner of a very elaborate walled garden at Seend Manor, Wiltshire. The garden was completed around 2010 and includes a grotto, and a Japanese temple.
A large amphitheatre made in slate at Glynllifon, Wales.
Two more of the structures in the rear garden at Felmingham, Norfolk. Built around 2014.
A new shell grotto was inserted into a space formerly occupied by a Victorian fernery at Eaton Hall, Cheshire in 2011.
The Dacha is a three storey wooden house, decorated with several metal domes and loosley based on St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. It was built in the late 1990s in the arboretum attached to Walcot Hall, Shropshire.
The Gothic Arch at Cavenham, Suffolk, one of several follies built there in the 2000’s.
A wooden tower in the shape of a Canadian Grain Elevator in the garden of a house in Hope, Shropshire. It is accessed via a tunnel at the bottom, then a staircase inside takes you up to the top where a bridge leads across to the front lawn. Finished in 2015.
Follies that have been comprehensively restored, or rebuilt from the ground up
The Gothic Exedra at Painswick Rococo Garden, Goucestershire, recreated from old sketches.
The Eagle House at Painshill is another complete reconstruction.
The Gothic Alcove at Hestercombe, Somerset. Completely rebuilt in 2000, then remodelled in 2008, when a painting was found showing a different roof to that originally supposed.
The entrance shop at Hawkstone Park was originally a menagerie housing exotic animals. It was abandoned for many years and part of it collapsed in 1952. When the park was restored all that remained were three partial walls.
Ingestre Pavilion, Tixall, Staffordshire, now owned by the Landmark Trust. It was built in 1752 but by 1802 the building had been partially demolished leaving only the facade. The rooms at the back were completely rebuilt in the 1990s.
The Temple or Birdhouse at Badger, Shropshire. Rescued from a ruined state and rebuilt to form a holiday home by the Vivat Trust, it again suffered vandalism after the Vivat Trust went out of business. Restored and re-opened by the Landmark Trust in 2017.
The Turkish Tent, Painshill, Surrey. The original tent would have been of canvas and was known only from old drawings. This is is of a more solid construction with a fibreglass outer and was completely remade and opened in 2004.
Pontypool Tower, Wales. Originally built in 1770, this was demolished in 1940 as it was thought it would act as a landmark for German planes. A campaign to rebuild it began in 1990 and in 1994 it was officially reopened.
Cilwendeg Shell House, Pembrokeshire, Wales. This dates from the 1820s but was derelict and roofless by the 1980s. In 2003 the Temple Trust initiated a full archaeological dig and unearthed much of the original shells which were then reinstated by Blott Kerr Wilson.
The Rustic Seat, Hestercombe, Somerset. Rebuilt from the ground up, this was only known from old paintings.
The Pigsty, Robin Hoods Bay, Yorkshire. Originally a classically designed house for two pigs, this fell into disuse and disrepair until it was taken over by the Landmark Trust in 1988. The roof had been stripped and much of the wood was rotten, so the whole thing was dismantled and taken away to be rebuilt with some new wood and a new extension at the back to make it habitable for humans.
Rohan’s Tower, Woodchurch, Kent. Built 1998, demolished 2015.
Belmont Tower, Holymoorside, Derbyshire, also known as Gladwin’s Folly. Demolished 2006 and replaced with a block of flats.
Twisted Brick Arch Llandyssil, Powys. Demolished 2015.
The Grotto at Horton Menagerie, Northamptonshire. Demolished to make way for a new kitchen 2017.