page_title: Architecture of Wales
section_title: Folly Gothic
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Wales / Gothic Revivalism and Historicism of the 18th and 19th Centuries. / Folly Gothic
caption_attribution_description: English: Penrhyn Castle 1783
context_page_description: Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
context_section_description: In the 1780s there was another style evolving which sometimes is referred to as a 'Folly Gothic', houses which were intended as eye-catchers. Possibly the best example of this is Clytha Castle the work of architect and garden designer John Davenport. This style was a less archaeologically correct form of Gothic revival and was widely used in Wales during the period 1780 to about 1810. Greater emphasis was placed on prominent arrow slits in round towers, blanked quatrefoil windows and stepped and angled battlements on gables. The earliest example of this may be the re-building of Penrhyn Castle, sometime before 1782 by Samuel Wyatt for Richard Pennant, who was to develop the Bethesda slate quarries. This building is only known from drawings by Moses Griffiths, though parts of it were incorporated into Thomas Hopper's rebuilding of Penrhyn. While it shows the features of this evolving style, the doorway shows the influence of Strawberry Hill gothic.
  Folly Gothic was a style which was widely adopted for park gates and lodges and for small houses sited in picturesque positions in locations frequented by tourists.
  A good example is Ogwen Bank near Bethesda, built by Lord Penhryn, possibly to a design by Samuel Wyatt,  for visitors to the Ogwen falls. In the Montgomeryshire  at Berriew Bodheilin was built was built in a prominent position overlooking the valley of the river Severn. This was burnt down in 1906, but an engraving shows a fantastic villa with five towers fronted with a Neoclassical portico.
  In Wales pointed Gothic windows continued to be widely used until about 1810. In Montgomeryshire iron framed Gothic windows were used to embellish vernacular houses. 
  Grander houses such as Dol-Llys in Llanidloes, built for George Mears around 1800, by an unknown architect, but in the villa style of John Nash, had wooden Gothic windows.
  One of the most eye-catching gothic follies in Wales is Paxton's Tower. Built by Sir William Paxton (1745–1824), Paxton made his first fortune while with the HEIC in Calcutta with Charles Cockerell, brother of the architect. He purchased the Middleton Hall estate about 1790 and built this tower 1808. Designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell who also worked for Paxton in the development of Tenby. The tower was built to commemorate Nelson's death at Trafalgar. The tower is 36 feet high. The lower part of the tower is triangular in shape with a turret at each corner and on the first floor there is a banqueting room. On the second floor there is a hexagonal prospect room surrounded by roof terraces.
caption: Penhryn Castle by Samuel Wyatt 1782
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