Airth,
Falkirk...
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The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly ranked "as the most bizarre building in Scotland", stands in Dunmore Park, near Airth in Stirlingshire, Scotland..
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Dunmore Park, the ancestral home of the Earls of Dunmore, includes a large country mansion, Dunmore House and grounds which contain, among other things, two large walled gardens. Walled gardens were a necessity for any great house in a northern climate in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, as a high wall of stone or brick helped to shelter the garden from wind and frost, and could create a microclimate in which the ambient temperature could be raised several degrees above that of the surrounding landscape. This allowed the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and also of ornamental plants, which could not otherwise survive that far north.
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The intricately carved stone pineapple, which is situated between the two bothies, forms an elaborate cupola atop an octagonal pavilion, with sash windows topped with Gothic (or, more accurately, Gothick) ogee arches on seven sides and a door, topped with an ogee transom, on the eighth. The door, on the north side, exits onto the upper level of the garden. Inside the pavilion, the stone walls are gently curved, so that the room is circular rather than octagonal. Even the door and the panes of glass in the seven windows are curved, so as to match the curve of the walls in the room.
The pavilion is just large enough to house a round table and some chairs.
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The pineapple is around 14 metres high and constitute a stunning example of the stonemason's craft, being a remarkably accurate depiction of a pineapple. Each of the curving stone leaves is separately drained to prevent frost damage, and the "stiff serrated edges of the lowest and topmost leaves and the plum berry-like fruits are all cunningly graded so that water cannot accumulate anywhere, ensuring that frozen trapped water cannot damage the delicate stonework.
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Nation Trust For Scotland... http://www.nts.org.uk/Visit/The-Pineapple
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Pineapple on Wikipedia.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore_Pineapple
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