A dry stone pyramid, part sculpture part children's climbing frame, built by master dry stone waller Ewan Allinson from Middleton-in-Teesdale was inspired by a strange story relating to Norse mythology.

The pyramid was unveiled at Cotherstone playing field in Teesdale, Co Durham, on 6 July. The three-sided pyramid rises to 4m. From the centre of each side, tunnels for toddlers disappear into it, meeting at a chamber inside where there’s room for them to stand.

Above the chamber, hidden in the stonework, is a time capsule filled with items collected by pupils at Cotherstone School and from the community in general.

The pyramid is constructed mostly of Baxton Law walling stone supplied by Dunhouse Quarries. There is also limestone from Hulands Quarry near Bowes Museum (Aggregate Industries), Whinstone from Forcegarth Quarry (Cemex) and Ganister (a hard, dense local sandstone from Harthope Quarry run by Richard and Colin Scott). All the stone was donated for the project.

Initiated by Play@Cotherstone, the local charity that provides the Community Park, the work was paid for through the Heritage Lottery Funded Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership. It explores aspects of local geology and quarrying, as well as the Norse mythology attached to Baldersdale (to which Cotherstone is a gateway) – Balder being the doomed Norse god of joy. The pyramid also involves a strange narrative, relayed to the sculptor by a woman who grew up at the head of Baldersdale, that adds a whole new layer of resonance to the dale (Ewan relates the story below).

The pyramid tackles this local manifestation of the Norse mythology head on, literally, with the forms of three heads – Balder, his mother Freya and father Odin – carved into each of three faces of the structure.

Why a pyramid? Strangely, perhaps, pyramids are not unknown in the region. Auckland Castle has one and there are several others across Yorkshire. Ewan says his is also a reference to Roman history.

Ewan: “In Roman Times, Egyptian soldiers would have to and fro-d across nearby Stainmore as part of the retinue of Septimius Severus, a North African Emperor who was active in the North-East of England. This is a delayed homage, with a Norse twist, from the North Western fringe of the Roman Empire to those from the South Eastern fringe who walked and rode and even settled in these parts long before most of our British ancestors had even set foot on this fair isle. These things are great to remember.”

During the construction, local children enjoyed being part of the process of building the pyramid and formed themselves into an impromptu 'pyramid police' that now attends to various pyramid matters on an ongoing basis.

David Winpenny is an authority on the history of pyramids in Britain and Ireland and author of Up to a Point – In Search of Pyramids in Britain and Ireland. He was at the opening of the Cotherstone pyramid.

Below is the story, told by Ewan Allinson at the opening of his pyramid, of the inspiration behind this work. He says it gives the pyramid a living meaning.

A week after the Northern Echo published an article on my sculpture at The Bowes Museum (see bit.ly/Bowes-exhibition) inspired by the God's Bridge limestone feature on the river Greta, near Bowes, County Durham, I received a letter from a lady who had grown up on a farm now submerged beneath Balderhead Reservoir.

She vividly recounted a childhood experience by the River Balder. There was a particular field which, when she entered it on a delightful Spring morning, filled her with dread. Instead of all the noise of nature that had surrounded her a second before, there was but an awful silence.

Her dog froze and uttered a horrified growl deep in its throat. She felt as if a thousand vile eyes were upon her and, above all, a single pair, dripping malevolence.

She never set foot in 'THAT field' again, in spite of entreaties from her Granddad to help rake the hay there. I am the second person she has told about this. The first was her mother, soon after the encounter, who replied, "I know". 

But why would a god of joy, of light, of the animating force of the universe, the most handsome and beloved of the gods, be giving off such bad vibes? Was it because of the manner of his death, his murder, for which he is most remembered? (A summary of the story can be read here). 

His perfection was his flaw; his vulnerability. This vulnerability, expressed in his dreams of an untimely end, set in train the protective actions of his parents, Odin and Frigg, that lead, ironically, to his death.

But when the lady who wrote me the letter came to spend a day with me, joining me for some dry-stone walling in upper Baldersdale, she concluded that it wasn't Balder. When I described the arch mischief maker Loki and his pivotal role in Balder's death, and the awful fate meted out to Loki as a result, she was adamant that it was Loki whose eyes had stared with such malevolence upon her.

Curiously, an ancient carving of Loki in chains can be found in Kirkby Stephen Church, just over the Pennine escarpment.

Of course, death is not the end for Norse Gods. So if I give, sculpturally, Balder a bit of a broken nose, he will be liberated from his perfection; will become less of a mammy’s boy and so get on with the important job of being in charge of joy, light and animating the universe.

But the pyramid has three faces. Odin and Frigg, Mam and Dad, have to work out what happened in order to undo the tragedy. This pyramid sets out to influence. And perhaps, when in 1,000 years' time, Balderhead reservoir is but a lump of archaeology, a young girl will find herself in 'THAT field' and as she enters it, all the sounds of Spring will become amplified and she will become giddy with joy.