St Marys; The Folly

Description

The Folly. An artillery fort, 20 metres square with walling 4 metres thick, enclosed by square ended buttresses 5 metres by 5 metres. Possibly built in 1554, it was 'old' in 1652. In 1661 it was 'ye Soldiers Lodgeings called ye folly'. The distinctive building was situated on a hill-crest position overlooking not only Porthcressa Bay but also the narrow sea channel that leads to a sheltered anchorage and is now known as St Mary's Road. On the small scale map dated 1655 it is depicted as sub-square with an indistinct feature at each corner; it is called 'Folly'. Shown on Lillys 1715 plan it is described as 'The Folly and old barracks'. The larger scale of this plan reveals that the structure then comprised a nearly square, apparently unroofed building or enclosure within a square walled structure; at each corner of the outer structure is a relatively substantial sub-square feature which could be a gun platform - these four features are far too big to be buttresses. A well defined gateway through the outer and inner enclosures is depicted in the NW (inland) sides. The Ordnance plan dated 1742 shows similar but substantial walling and entranceway and describes it 'Ruins of an old barrack'. This structure is not depicted on the 1746 Ordnance Map. (PastScape)