So what really is a "folly"? It's just one of these terms that are dreadfully hard to set a strict definition for.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a folly as: "A popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder," while Chamber's Dictionary calls it a "a great useless structure, or one left unfinished, having been begun without a reckoning of the cost."

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 (Follies: Grottoes & Garden Buildings).

For the course of this project, I have looked at numerous case studies on follies in the United Kingdom, and it surprised me to the most, how each and everyone one of them has its unique shape and form that defines it in its own peculiar way.

For more information on British follies, please visit the following websites:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/follies/index.html
http://www.heritage.co.uk/follies/ff10great.html

Hanan Mansour