Goats are naturally inclined to climb, but they rarely find multi-story brick high-rises built exclusively for their enjoyment. Today, towering structures with spiral exterior ramps dot the landscapes of vineyards, dairy farms, and even a bustling city bar. These architectural oddities draw crowds of curious tourists across multiple continents.
The story of how this unusual trend began traces back to a 19th-century European garden folly and spirals outward to touch places as diverse as South Africa, Norway, and the United States.
The Original Goat Mountain of Portugal
In the 19th century, Fernando Guedes da Silva da Fonseca built the world’s first known goat tower at the Aveleda winery near Penafiel, Portugal. Constructed as a decorative garden folly, the three-story structure featured stone walls and a rightward-climbing spiral wooden ramp.
The creator of the tower reportedly believed that goats did not belong on the flat plains. He built the structure specifically so his animals could have their own mountain to climb. The Torre das Cabras stands on the estate to this day, alongside other architectural follies like a Tea House and a Guard House.
South Africa and the French Wine Feud
The Portuguese structure directly inspired the next major goat tower decades later. In 1981, after a visit to Aveleda, the owners of the Fairview Winery in South Africa constructed a two-story brick and mortar tower for their herd of 750 Swiss Saanen mountain goats.
The Cape Winelands tower featured a steeply sloped metal roof and an encircling wooden ramp. The winery soon launched a wine called “Goats do Roam,” a pun on the famous French “Côtes du Rhône” wine region. The name angered France’s Institut National des Appellations d’Origine, who worried that American consumers would confuse the goat-themed wine with their protected regional product.
A Worldwide Phenomenon of Towering Goats
The Fairview structure triggered a massive global construction trend. In 1998, Illinois farmers David and Marcia Johnson built a 31-foot-tall, six-story tower out of 5,000 hand-made bricks. They constructed the massive building before they even owned any goats, later purchasing 11 animals to inhabit it. In Surry, Virginia, the Hampton Roads Winery constructed a 34-foot tall version for their Nigerian Dwarf goats.
The structures also appear in highly unusual locations. At Silky O’Sullivan’s bar on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, patrons sit in an outdoor area featuring a goat tower, where customers occasionally share their beer with the climbing animals. Most recently, in May 2026, Canada unveiled its first goat tower at Udderly Ridiculous Farm Life in Ontario, featuring a 28-foot pentagon shape completely covered in bright, animal-themed murals.