architecture, belvedere, country house, Essex, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Lancashire, Mausoleum, Monmouthshire, sham castle, Summerhouse

Monuments to Lost Loves

With St Valentine’s Day approaching, the Folly Flâneuse wondered which were the most romantic garden buildings. The most famous expression of love in an architectural form is surely the Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his favourite wife. But closer to home are three equally enchanting buildings built as monuments to lost loves – two real, and one imaginary, and each likened to the marble mausoleum in India. 

architecture, Cumbria, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Lancashire, landscape, Summerhouse, Temple

The Temple, Holme Island, Cumbria

Image courtesy of Cumbria Archive Service WDSO/288/2/7.

Holme Island is a small island in Morecambe Bay. It sits close to the coast, not far from Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria (formerly Lancashire). The island was connected to the mainland by a causeway in the 19th century, by which date it was home to a rather special small estate.