David Winpenny loves pyramids so much he’s written a book about them (From York Press)

David Winpenny loves pyramids so much he’s written a book about them

8:50am Saturday 16th January 2010 in

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HANDS up if you think you need to fly to Egypt to see a pyramid. Quite a few raised, I would imagine. Wracking my brain, I managed to come up with another location – the Louvre, in Paris. But that was about it.

So it may surprise you to learn there are at least 220 of them within driving distance – quite a bit of driving, I’ll grant you, but all are to be found on this sceptred isle.

If you want to find out where they are and why they are there, you will need to buy copy of David Winpenny’s book, Up To A Point – In Search Of Pyramids In Britain and Ireland.

David takes us on a whimsical odyssey to discover pyramidal follies such as the one in Scotland made from laminated plastic, another in Wales fashioned out of road signs, and even one in Ireland which sheltered members of the IRA.

Locally, he reminds us among others of the wonderful modern pyramids at Scarborough’s Sea Life Centre, Castle Howard’s three pyramids, and the brutal, truncated pyramid of RAF Fylingdales, on the North York Moors.

If the pyramids themselves are intriguing, so too are the reasons why they were built. If you like a bit of scandalous family history or an insight into the likes of freemasonry, this book is for you.

David is a talented man who not only runs a successful North Yorkshire public relations company but has now become a writer.

He says: “I first became interested in pyramids when I was at school in Ripon. At nearby Sharow, there was one built for the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth. He was fascinated by the Great Pyramid at Giza, which he believed held the answer to the world’s secrets. “I was also aware of others, including the three pyramids at Castle Howard and so I decided it would be nice to write a little book.”

Six years later and his ‘little’ book had swollen to 400 pages.

David knew about some of the structures, but once word got out that he was researching a book, people would phone him asking, “Have you heard of this one?”; the calls are still coming in.

“A lot of the pyramids are garden ornaments and mausoleums,” says David. “But some are office blocks and leisure facilities. They cost less to heat because there is not as much surface area as a cube.”

He confesses that all the pyramids featured in his book are rather similar.

“Well, they are all the same shape of course, but it is the story behind them that fascinates.

“Take the one at Kilcooley Abbey, in Tipperary. It’s a tall, thin 18th century pyramid built as a mausoleum for the Ponsonby family. They were very eccentric and William was perhaps the oddest. “Being the local landowner, he took it as his right to take a village handmaiden to bed as his hot water bottle. He told one poor girl that she smelled, so he picked up what he thought was a perfume bottle and poured it over her. In the morning he realised it was ink.”

But for someone so utterly taken by pyramids, there is one thing about David that is hard to believe, that doesn’t seem right; he has never been to Egypt.

“We might go to the Great Pyramid at Giza at some point, maybe as part of a cruise when we are a bit older. But I’m in no rush to see it.”

• Up To A Point – In Search Of Pyramids In Britain And Ireland is published by Sessions of York at £24.95, from uptoapoint.co.uk