Tempietto, Corby Castle

The Tempietto at Corby Castle is an early 18th-century garden folly built for Thomas Howard of Corby Castle. It features stone walls, stucco, a slate roof, and a stone chimney, designed in the style of a Tuscan temple. Stone steps lead up to a portico supported by four Tuscan columns on square bases, topped with a moulded entablature. The pediment above the portico is adorned with carvings of draped figures with fish-like tails. The gabled roof includes a round stone chimney stack on the south gable. The entrance has a moulded surround with an entablature and a heavily dentilled pediment. Inside the portico, the walls are plain stucco with a moulded plaster ceiling, and the door is made up of six panels. Beneath the structure are two vaulted chambers with two entrances from the west, featuring plank doors, one marked with the initials P.H.H. A side window above has wooden casements with square leaded lights, while a similar window in the east wall has been filled in. The interior of the single room displays painted panels of Alpine scenes by Matthew Nutter of Carlisle, dated 1832, and a painted roundel on the ceiling. The building is depicted in an engraving from 1729, suggesting it was constructed between 1708, when Thomas Howard inherited the estate, and that date. It serves as a terminus for a garden riverside walk from Corby Castle.