Designed landscape - belvedere, Ballymount, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Designed Landscapes
At Ballymount in County Dublin, an eighteenth-century folly sits on top of a stepped barrow, the combination of prehistoric earthwork and later architectural whimsy producing something quietly odd.
A circular masonry enclosure, roughly ten metres in diameter, crowns the mound, and rising from that is a small turret fitted with a doorway and three windows. The whole arrangement was never meant to be useful in any practical sense. Follies of this kind were ornamental structures built to decorate designed landscapes, often intended to catch the eye from a house or garden, evoking a pleasing sense of antiquity or romantic ruin.
The structure appears in a drawing made by Gabriel Beranger in 1767, which records it as a two-storeyed turret, suggesting either that some portion of the upper level has since been lost or that later descriptions have simplified what Beranger observed. Beranger was a Dutch-born artist working in Ireland who documented antiquities and landscapes with considerable care, and his drawings remain a valuable record of sites as they appeared in the Georgian period. The choice to place a folly on a pre-existing stepped barrow, rather than constructing a mound from scratch, was not unusual for the era; landscape designers of the period were often happy to incorporate older features into their compositions, lending them a layered, suggestive quality. The site has been compiled as part of the record maintained by archaeologist Geraldine Stout.
Ballymount sits in south County Dublin, an area that has seen considerable suburban and industrial development, which makes the survival of a feature like this all the more notable. The folly is a modest structure rather than a dramatic one, and a visitor should approach it with that in mind; the interest lies in the detail of the masonry enclosure, the remnant turret, and the way the stepped barrow elevates the whole thing above its surroundings. Checking access arrangements locally before visiting is advisable, as designed landscape features of this kind are often on private land.
