FOLLY – the Legend

The legend states that a young American decided to build a summer house for his bride. The house was built on land at the eastern headland of Port Antonio harbour, with a commanding view of the sea. Legend also states that the completed house was white, the flowers which adorned the gardens were white, so too were doves, monkeys and peacocks which the bridegroom kept in the gardens. As soon as the young bride set foot in the completed house, to her dismay, a wall crumbled. In building the house, sea sand was used in the cement mixture. Distressed, she fled the scene vowing never to return. Her distraught husband pined away and soon died. His remains, at his request, were put at a point where the sea water would splash upon the grave. The facts are that although the house wasn’t correctly built, it survived longer than the legend would make one think. Also, the bride was not young, in fact, when she came to Folly in 1905, she was already a grandmother. What is more, her husband died in 1912 and photographs taken as late as 1914, show that she continued to live at Folly long after his death.