Templeton Mausoleum, Castle Upton, Antrim Road, Templepatrick

The Templeton Mausoleum at Castle Upton, Templepatrick, is an elegant and well-constructed late eighteenth-century mausoleum erected in 1789 by the Hon. Sarah Upton to the memory of the Right Honourable Arthur Upton. Designed by Robert Adam, a leading architect of the era, it stands as a rare surviving and complete example of European neo-classicism in Ireland. The building exemplifies Adam's distinctive neo-classical style through its fluted dentil entablature, round-headed niches, vase-shaped urns, and bas-relief circular medallions.

The mausoleum is a freestanding, double-height structure of rectangular plan, faced in ashlar with a pyramidal ashlar roof topped by a central square cap stone. It sits upon a random rubble uncoursed plinth with dressed coping. The walls are surmounted by a dentil cornice and feature a rusticated projecting central bay to the front (south) façade. The fluted frieze and architrave of the Ionic entablature at eave-level is interrupted to all elevations by plain panels.

The entrance is positioned at the south elevation, contained within a central V-jointed rusticated block breakfront. The opening is round-arched with moulded and fluted imposts. The entablature panel to the breakfront is inset with marble and inscribed "SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ARTHUR UPTON." This breakfront entablature is surmounted by an attic course of one central acroter flanked by two acroteria, supporting square urns. The central acroter is embossed at its centre with a patera flanked by two swags supporting a vase-shaped urn. The flanking bays of the principal elevation are ashlar-faced above the plinth and contain round-headed niches, each filled with a vase-shaped urn. Plain panels located above the niches at impost level are surmounted by bas-relief circular medallions. The entrance features painted iron ten-recessed-panelled double doors with decorative nail heads at frame junctions; the tympanum has a radial grille with a central Maltese cross. The north, east, and west elevations are blank.

Both the external and internal fabric and original features remain intact, with the mausoleum unaltered since its construction. Drawing by Robert Adam survive in the Sir John Soane Museum, showing an earlier variant of the design. Adam's original conception was for a much larger version with three decorative sides and one blank side; the building finally constructed was smaller with only one decorative face. Despite these differences, the drawings closely resemble the completed mausoleum. The work of Robert Adam, the great Scottish exponent of neo-classicism, is scarcely represented in Ireland. Some interiors, now lost, existed at Langford House in Dublin, and some fine rooms remain at Headfort, County Meath. Whilst Castle Upton was only remodelled by Adam, the Mausoleum was built to his designs and truly reflects his accomplishment.

The mausoleum is situated within the walled graveyard of the Castle Upton Estate, surrounded by numerous memorials from the early eighteenth century onwards. The graveyard is enclosed by a random rubble stone wall, accessed via a gatescreen on the south side comprising wrought iron gates at the end of a short avenue lined with mature pine trees, flanked by random rubble walls. The mausoleum is valuable in terms of its group value as part of the Castle Upton Estate and holds strong social associations within the local context as the burial place of the Upton family, whilst possessing wider national interest due to the rarity of such architectural examples in Northern Ireland.

In November 1962, W. Henderson Smith, owner of Castle Upton, agreed to offer the Mausoleum to the National Trust. Lord Templetown, head of the family for whom the mausoleum was built, approved the proposal. In 1963, Sir Robin Kinahan purchased Castle Upton, and he and Henderson Smith jointly gave the mausoleum to the Trust. The Ministry of Finance granted £2,400 as an endowment from the Ulster Land Fund. The National Trust restored the mausoleum in 1963 at a cost exceeding £5,000, and it was opened to the public by Lady Coralie Kinahan in 1966. Presbyterianism has a long historical association with Templepatrick; the first Presbyterian minister was Rev. Josias Welsh, grandson of John Knox, the Scottish reformer, who is buried in the graveyard.