Faringdon Folly Tower — Attraction in Vale of White Horse

This unique 100ft Tower is Faringdon’s icon and the last major folly to be built in England. Hailed as 'Britain's finest 20th century Folly Tower' and 'One of the most important follies in Britain. The Tower sits on Folly Hill, within a charming 4 acre, circular woodland of splendid Scots Pine and broadleaf trees, some more than 200 years old. The Folly Tower is open the 1st and 3rd Sundays from April to October. 11am - 5pm Adults £3, 11-16 years £1, under 11s free ​Just turn up. Card or cash payments. There is also the Faringdon Folly Woodland Sculpture trail , see if you can you find all these? We couldn't?  Ring of Toadstools near the Tower with arrows to help you find things  A wise old owl ( near an oak tree West)  Cromwell's Cannon pointing towards Faringdon  Lord Berners in a Tree- what is he doing? ( South side, just across from the Tower)  A Troll in a dead tree; (South side just across from the Tower)  The Fairly Useless Bridge or is it a troll bridge?. ( North side)  A Fairy House. You can peep inside. ( North West quarter)  A Giant Pie as in Sing a Song of Sixpence ( on the grass near the Tower)  22 Sing a Song of Sixpence blackbirds high in the trees, mostly around the Tower ( 2 are in the Tower)  A Field Mouse - quite hard to find ( White Horse Hill side)  A big Mole on the ground (the Brize Norton side)  A Buzzard ( flying high in a tree on the East side )  A Hare- a bit scary (looking out towards Brize Norton)  A Bat hanging upside down high in a Pine tree.( South West)  A squirrel climbing a dead tree( South East)  A Heart - Good for photos (North East quarter) and - a giraffe -but please don't feed him. ( South West quarter) You can park on the road opposite the farm gates, and it takes less than 5...

The folly on Folly Hill (or Faringdon Hill) was designed by Lord Gerald Wellesley, later 7th Duke of Wellington, for Lord Berners, and built in 1935. It is 140feet (43m) high and affords panoramic views of the Vale of White Horse. It is believed to be the last major folly to be built in England. In 1982 Robert Heber-Percy restored it and gave it to the town in trust. It has been a Grade II listed building since 1986.

In common with Badbury Hill to the west of the town, it has an ancient ditched defensive ring (hill fort). This was fortified by supporters of Matilda sometime during the Anarchy of 1135–1141, when she claimed the throne from King Stephen, but was soon defeated by him. Oliver Cromwell fortified it in an unsuccessful campaign to defeat the Royalist garrison at Faringdon House. The Pye family had Scots pines planted around the summit, around the time that Faringdon House was rebuilt in the late 18th century. During the Second World War the Home Guard used it as an observation post.

The Tolkien scholar John Garth has suggested that the folly was inspiration for the Tower of Isengard ('Orthanc'), in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and that Berners's painting of the Folly atop its hill led Tolkien to make a similar painting of a view in the Shire, 'The Hill : Hobbiton-across-the-Water.'

The woodland is always open to the public, the Tower is open on selected dates only - check the website. Park on Stanford Road and...

Quirky wooden sculptures (including 22 of the four and twenty blackbirds, whose addition was inspired by the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, which was written by Faringdon poet Henry James Pye) are hidden amongst the trees of this small woodland that perches on top of Folly Hill. Small children and adults alike enjoy seeking them out.

There's a giant hare looking towards the Uffington White Horse (which you can see on a clear day) an owl, a giraffe - and a troll who keeps careful watch from his hole-in-a-tree lair.

It's an easy ten minutes walk up the hill from the road below (parking for several cars on the roadside).

The tower itself is open from 11 on the first and third Sunday of each month. Views from the top, I imagine, are...