A member of a local history Facebook group recently asked, “What is The Folly in Wexford Town named after?”
The Folly is a small area close to the Tesco supermarket on Distillery Road. It sits at the top of Mill Road, a one-way street that connects Distillery Road and King Street with The Faythe.
The word “folly” has two definitions:
- lack of good sense or foolishness.
- a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.
According to Google’s Ngram Viewer, which charts word usage throughout history, the word “folly” peaked in frequency during the early 1800s:
The area is home to Mount Folly, an old Georgian house that stands overlooking Mill Road, though it is now obscured by trees and a large wall.
According to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, the house was built in the early 1800s when the word “folly” was at its most popular.
A 2004 report in the Wexford People newspaper valued the property at €1 million, describing it as a “mansion” and a “beautiful accommodation of generous proportions.” The house went to auction in September 2017 with an advised minimum value of €250,000 and sold for that amount on 5 September 2017. It returned to the market in November 2022 at €450,000 and sold for €430,000 on 1 September 2023.
This leaves several possibilities:
- The owners of Mount Folly named their house after the place name. If that is the case, the origins of the name remain unknown.
- The area got its name from the presence of Mount Folly, which would have stood out at the time. The owners may have chosen the name in an act of self-deprecation.
- Locals considered the house so extravagant that they nicknamed it “The Folly.” Gradually, the name caught on and was applied to the surrounding area. The Georgian house was later renamed to match its nickname.
Readers with further information on the origins of the name are welcome to contact the editor.