The interior of Paragon Tower

The roofless stone-built edifice appears to consist of a circular outer wall enclosing four equal-sized rooms, each possessing a central fireplace. All the fireplaces connect to the base of a tall central circular chimney stack.

Image 1:

The southeast room and its fireplace  

Image 2:

The top of the chimney stack, perhaps the origin of the name tower

Image 3:

Gap between the northeast and southeast rooms

Image 4:

Arched entrance doorway into the northeast room

Image 5:

A false 'window' in the curved wall projecting from the north of the main building

Image 6:

The back of the same wall reveals no sign of the window!

Request for information

The description of Paragon Tower as a hunting lodge is given in the book Brecon Beacons and Glamorgan Walks, a Pathfinder Guide complied by Brian Conduit and published in 1994 by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton; ISBN 0-319-00372-8.

The tower also receives a mention in the Historic Landscape Characterisation of this area on the website of the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT):

The circular earlier 19th-century Paragon Tower folly, high on the western side of Allt yr Esgair, east of Newton, was probably a focus for riding, hunting or walking expeditions associated with one of the local landed estates.

If you can provide any additional information about Paragon Tower and its history, please write to me (John Ball) via my Contact Page.

Acknowledgements

To my friend Annie in Talybont-on-Usk, who first drew my attention to Paragon Tower as a possible photographic subject.

To my friends Siân and Adrian (and Rosie!) for helping to make the walk an enjoyable experience.

To the group of walkers from Monmouth whom we met at the tower and who told us about the reference to Paragon Tower in the book Brecon Beacons and Glamorgan Walks.