Alan Robson called the monument "a striking example of Doric architecture" in an article for the "Evening Chronicle". "The Independent" James Wilson thought it "perplexing" and a "seriously silly folly". "The Journal" Tony Jones called it "a visible but under-rated symbol of regional identity". David Brandon described it in "The Guardian" as an "extraordinary... symbol of the Earl of Durham's insanity and county pride". "The Northern Echo" Chris Lloyd compared Penshaw Monument to the Angel of the North, calling both "beautifully pointless". Tony Henderson, also of "The Journal", wrote that the lack of roof and interior walls "has been to the advantage of the monument as it allows the dramatic play of light among the columns". In her "Monument Guide to England and Wales", Jo Darke called the monument "a great northern landmark"; architectural historians Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp have described its blackened surface as "a satanic response to the pure white Hellenic ideal". Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that "the monument looms as an apparition of the Acropolis under hyperborian skies". In his book "The Northumbrians", historian Dan Jackson praised it: "It is a building of great gravitas, and its austere Doric silhouette dominates the landscape for miles around."