Baron's Folly, Down Law is a Grade C listed building in the Scottish Borders local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 7 November 2007. Summerhouse, observatory.
Baron's Folly, Down Law
- WRENN ID
- western-pedestal-hawthorn
- Grade
- C
- Local Planning Authority
- Scottish Borders
- Constituency
- Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP: John Lamont (Con)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 7 November 2007
- Type
- Summerhouse, observatory
- OS grid reference
- NT 637 267
- Coordinates
- 55.53354, -2.57637
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Baron's Folly, located at Down Law, is an octagonal summerhouse and observatory built between 1780 and 1790. It features a piended roof topped with an iron finial. The structure has Gothick pointed window openings on three sides, which are currently boarded up, and there is a later wooden door on the northeast side. The exterior is constructed from random rubble with dark whinstone pinnings and rusticated quoins around the window and door openings, and it has a Welsh slate roof.
Inside, the walls still show remnants of plaster, and the flooring is wooden. The boarded roof includes trusses arranged in a radial pattern.
Local climate
Baron's Folly, Down Law receives an average of 910 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 68% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 64% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 55 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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