::andrew muir online::

The Mussenden Temple is located near Coleraine, Northern Ireland, set on the edge of the cliff at Downhill with fine views to the west towards Donegal and to the east towards the Giant’s Causeway and beyond.

I have a great love for the temple, which to me reflects and symbolises the beauty of Northern Ireland.

The Temple is part of the larger Downhill Castle which was built by the Bishop of Derry in 1774 but destroyed by fire in 1851. It was soon rebuilt and lay intact until the end of the Second World War when, after being used by the RAF it fell into disrepair.

All that is now left is ruins, except for Mussenden Temple, a domed cylindrical temple, modelled on the Temple of Vesta near Rome, built in 1783 by the eccentric Bishop of Derry, Frederick Hervey's, for his cousin Mrs Frideswide Mussenden who died at the age of 22 before it was finished.

The Bishop used the building as a library and as a vantagepoint for the horse races which he set his clergy to on Downhill Strand, where they had to compete for the best parishes

The temple is now owned by the National Trust.

Since construction, the cliff eroded approximately three meters and without the help from a $20,000 Samuel H. Kress Foundation grant and other state and private sources, she would have fallen into the sea. Of course, in a dramatic way, that is part of its appeal, since its builder must have known that at some point in the future the building would succumb to forces of nature!

The good news is that Mussenden Temple has now been permanently stabilized with 23 rock anchors. The eighteenth-century rotunda library structure is out of danger!

After viewing the temple from the Derry to Coleraine train, which runs directly underneath the temple via Downhill tunnel, I was intrigued and after visiting in 2001 I have developed a love for the Temple. It's views are fantastic whilst also being very romantic inside! An ideal place to get married!.

The Belfast Telegraph recently reported that the National Trust charge Ł500 for an event at the Temple which will seat 100. Email ni.events@ntrust.org.uk for further details.

This page was last updated Tuesday, 27 July 2004 20:09:44