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Rhenish Tower is a Grade II listed structureStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. built in about 1860 on the pier at Lynmouth, in Devon, England. Its original purpose is unclear, and it is now generally considered to be a folly
Ornamental structure with no practical purpose, built to enhance a designed garden or landscape.. The balconies are a later addition, added because the original construction was considered to be an eyesore.[1]
The tower may have been built as a beacon to guide mariners, but the electric light is a later addition. It may alternatively have been used to store salt water to be supplied for sea baths, untroubled by the vagaries of the weather.[2]
Rhenish Tower acquired the name Rhenish because its design was said to have been copied from a tower on the River Rhine in Germany.[1] The structure was almost completely destroyed by flooding in 1952, and was rebuilt in 1954.[2]