Inspired by a folly which he had seen in Ireland, Joe Donnelly decided to build an eye-catcher on a patch of waste ground near his home. It was constructed between 2011 and 2015, and once the building work was complete Joe, with his grandson Aidan, created a garden around the folly. During lockdown Joe and Aidan (the latter by now working in horticulture) used their time to redesign the planting around the sham ruin.
Ayrshire
The Wallace Monument, or Barnweil Tower, Ayrshire
The gruesome tale is told that William Wallace, the famed Scottish soldier, stood on Barnweil Hill, near Tarbolton in Ayrshire, and watched as the barns in which he had trapped English soldiers were set alight. He is supposed to have uttered the words ‘The barns o’Ayr burn weel’, giving the spot its name. Few people seem to have genuinely believed this story, but in 1854 the decision was taken to erect a tower on the hilltop to commemorate ‘the matchless Sir William Wallace’.
National Burns Memorial, Mauchline, Ayrshire.
It is hard to find a town or village in Ayrshire that doesn’t have a monument to Robert Burns, but the little town of Mauchline has the honour of being home to the ‘National Burns Memorial’. Together with five cottage homes for ‘deserving people who have fallen on hard times’, the tower was built in 1896 as a memorial to the poet.