Survey Data
Reg No
14942016
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Previous Name
Gloster
Original Use
Folly
In Use As
Folly
Date
1710 - 1750
Coordinates
208860, 194559
Date Recorded
16/08/2004
Date Updated
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Description
Single-arch folly with carved sandstone cornice to supporting piers flanked by obelisks, c.1730, with niches to bases of obelisks. Located to east of Gloster House on an elevated site terminating a view through mature woodlands.
Appraisal
This eye-catcher, known as "Gloster Obelisk", is a wonderful example of an eighteenth-century folly. Reminiscent of the Castletown Obelisk, the folly at Gloster House is smaller. Nonetheless it creates a remarkable termination of the vista from the house, through a mature woodland, to the obelisk on an elevated height framed by the sky behind. Attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce, a leading exponent of Palladianism in Ireland, the obelisk was a form much favored by architects in the early eighteenth century.