We were very lucky and happy to be awarded a Virtual cache to place, as part of the virtual reward 2.0. And have chosen to place it at Horton Tower Dorset, which is a Grade II seven story folly close to the Dorset village of Chalbury Common where you can also enjoy some truly stunning views across the great Dorset countryside.
In architecture a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, these ornamental buildings were costly to build with no real practical purpose, most were tower's or mock gothic ruin's built in large gardens or parks by their landowners
Horton's Tower was built in 1726 by Humphrey Sturt. One of reasons history says the tower was built was to allow Sturt to watch and follow the local hunt when he was too old to ride. Made from red brick, the tower stands at 140ft tall, and was said to have once been the tallest non-religious building in Britain, Horton's Tower is a classic example of an eccentric folly or monument. It's a grand and gothic five storey red brick tower, but over the years it has fallen into a state of disrepair and has become not much more than a shell. At one time, visitors to the tower could enter it at its base and look through to the tower's top windows across the fields and the Dorset countryside, but as the years passed and all of the floors had become dangerous to use the tower was shut to the public. In recent years, the tower has found a new purpose as a place to house mobile phone signal masts - fixed discreetly to its sides, near the top of the tower - with mobile phone company Vodafone undertaking some restoration work after they received planning permission to attach the masts.
Many thanks to Laura ( MotherHen12 ) who informed us the folly was used as the location for the cock-fighting scene in John Schlesinger's 1967 film version of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
To log the cache you will need to complete some tasks whilst visiting Horton Tower.
1. A = There are ? how many concrete BT inspection covers are in the ground of the footpath, close to the fence line and style, that takes you to Horton Tower.
2. B = What is the same number that appears on these covers under the letter W, Please email us through geocaching.com the answers.
3. It would also be nice if you could take a photo, of you and/or your Gps with Horton's Tower in the background, and post it with your log, without giving away any information required thank you.
Waypoints have been provided for a parking area with room for two or three cars, and the start of the footpath up to the tower, which starts at the entrance to the private road for the houses close to Horton Tower. The walk is a steady climb up a tarmac road, until it becomes a hard packed footpath up to the tower and beyond!!
Congratulations to Malcolmthe1st for being FTF!!!
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.